Fade to black
by maxrpg
Summary: An old enemy of the alliance of races comes back to wipe out those they believe inferior, which just happens to be anything that's living. We join SG-1 and the Atlantis team as they work with a race long thought lost to try and save the day.
1. Chapter 1

**"Fade To Black"**

A few years have passed in the Stargate universe and although the war with the Wraith still wages on in Pegasus and the fate of Destiny and her crew remains unknown with the Goa'uld system lords and the Ori defeated the Milky Way galaxy has been relatively peaceful. SG Teams continue to visit their allies and explore new worlds remaining vigilant at all times not knowing what to expect when they walk through the gate but thankfully they haven't encountered any hostility in their continuing journeys through the gate to explore the galaxy with their main objective still to obtain technology to help defend Earth against all possible threats.

However the peaceful life in the Milky Way was about to be shattered...big time...

A MALP is sent through the gate to a previously unexplored address and footage shows the planet is completely void of life including trees and grass it's just a baron world.

Turning the camera to locate and verify a DHD exists so they could retrieve the MALP, Samantha Carter notices something on the Stargate. After a bit of bartering with O'Neill he agrees to let her go and take a look and they go through the gate and begin their investigation.

Carter runs scans trying to figure out what the object is that is black and shiny metallic and 'latched' around the gate between the 2nd and 3rd chevron and she tries to attached an instrument to the side of it, but before she is able to it unlatches itself and falls to the ground.

A little shocked but intrigued at what just happened (her initial scans show it's inactive and not a threat) she picks up the object which is quite heavy and puts it on the back of the MALP then opens the gate and heads back to Earth with the object in tow so she can research it a bit more with the correct equipment.

Back on Earth in a lab with other scientists Carter runs tests, scans and x-rays the object in an attempt to figure out what it is and they've been at it for 4 days when O'Neill walks in:

O'Neill: _"So...hows it going?"_

Carter: _"We're making progress sir."_

O'Neill: _"Excellent." *Picks up hammer off table and starts hitting it gently* "What is it?"_

Carter: _"Well it's err..." *Takes hammer away from O'neill* "..we don't know yet"_

Random Scientist: _"It's shiny."_

O'Neill: _*Gives the scientist his strange look* "Yes, very good."_

Carter interrupts and explains that they ran every test they could think of and so far know that it has no power source and no internal components and at this stage it just appears to be a large piece of metal but the material its made from is unknown, she doesn't know what it is or it's purpose if it even has one.

O'Neill: _"Keep me posted." *leaves the room*_

Carter: _"Yes Sir." *looks puzzled and exhausted*_

**_Meanwhile on P3R-272 _**

_**(This is the world where the knowledge of the Ancients was first downloaded into O'Neill's mind.)**_

The gate activates and illuminates the room and a few moments later 2 figures appear through the gate dressed in black metallic armor and carrying a cylinder shaped object.

They place the cylinder in the middle of the gold ring situated in the center of the room and step back..the ring activates and the cylinder opens and red beams of light scatter all around the walls of the room, and then they merge at a single location on one of the walls.

One of the figures dressed in armour walks over and places its hand on the wall where the beams of light merged and in a Tok'ra like fashion the wall dissolves away revealing a corridor, the corridor is of Ancient design similar to that in Atlantis.

The figures pick up the cylinder off the floor and walk through the corridor and come to a large door which has some type of entry key system on the front of it and after entering a specific sequence the door opens revealing another room and after entering the room the corridor seals itself and the gate deactivates leaving the other room exactly how it was as if nothing had happened.

Some time later back at the SGC Carter and the other scientists are still hard at work trying to figure out what the object is when a red circle of light appears on the object and for a brief moment the entire object appears to fade away before their eyes but as suddenly as this occurred it was back as it was. Carter reported what had happened to O'Neill and having had bad experiences with little objects in the past as a precaution he ordered it be moved to a secure facility away from any mass population.

Carter: "But Sir I want to run more tests and find out what just happened."

O'Neill: "Sorry Carter we can't take the risk, you know that."

Carter: "..."

O'Neill: "Look you can go work on this thing when you get back.."

Carter: "Back Sir?"

O'Neill: "...I was about to come and see you before you walked in here. Col Swanson has requested you join her on board the Alliance."

Carter: "Did she say why?"

O'Neill: "Didn't ask!." *Gets on radio* "She's ready to go"

Carter: "Go?...I need to get m..." *she was beamed on board*

The "Alliance" is a new ship built from Earth, Goa'uld/Jaffa and Asgard technology and controlled and manned by all and not just a single race, it's a powerful ship and a symbol of peace and cooperation between the people of the Milky Way.

Col Swanson has played a big part over the last few years in negotiating peace between worlds that were arguing over territory and technology left behind by the Goa'uld and because she earned their trust and respect the leaders of these worlds chose her to be the captain of the Alliance.

Carter meets with Swanson on the Alliance's bridge where it is explained they intercepted a signal coming from a source in the same region of space as Proclarush, the planet where O'Neill found the ZPM to power the Ancient chair on Earth, and are on their way to investigate.

Carter says OK and asks what she can do to help, Swanson asks Carter to use her expertise to find out what the signal means and hopefully who sent it before they reach their destination. Carter, after a few hours into their journey and using various algorithms has managed to clean up the signal but it's in a language she's never seen before and even the Asgard system with it's vast database of known languages is unable to translate it.

Carter opens communications to Earth and asks Daniel Jackson if he can assist in translating the message, Daniel doesn't recognize the language but agrees to help and tells Carter that it may take some time and he will be back in touch if he makes any progress.

Col Swanson requests Carter comes to the bridge as they've arrived at the coordinates they believe the signal originated. Looking out they see nothing but space, no planets, no ships..with the exception of stars in the distance they see nothing.

Carter turns to a Jaffa at the flight console and asks "Are you sure these are the right coordinates?" to which he replies "Yes ma'am, this is the exact location the computer said the signal came from." Carter asks him to run a sensor scan and see if anything comes up. Swanson notices something strange, the stars appear to be disappearing and reappearing sort of blinking in and out and tells Carter "Can you see that?".

Carter takes the place of the Jaffa at the console and sees the scans have picked up a very faint energy signature and coupled with the blinking stars she comes up with a theory "There's definitely something out there..I'm going to try something." she quickly modifies the on board Asgard weapon array to emit a non lethal beam and begins firing in random patterns across their field of view.

On the 4th shot the beam strikes an illuminates an object in front of them, it's so black that it blends in with space making it almost invisible which is why they couldn't see it "It's a ship" says Swanson and Carter agrees "Our sensors can't penetrate it and appears to be dead in space". Swanson attempts to communicate with the ship and translating and broadcasting in every known language they have "This is Col Swanson captain of the Alliance, we received your signal and have come to investigate. We mean you no harm do you require assistance?." they don't receive a response.

They receive a communication from Daniel who tells Carter that he thinks he's managed to translate the message and Carter fills him in on their current situation and that they found a ship "So is it a distress signal?" she asks "I don't think so" replies Daniel and goes on to explain that it's in a variation of very old Ancient and he believes the message reads:

"From under the fence, the palace of light will slumber"

Carter says "That doesn't make any sense, what does that mean?" Daniel replies "I'm...still working on it" Carter asks Daniel to let her know when he figures it out and terminates communications. Swanson and Carter are discussing what the message could possibly mean when suddenly the ship outside shows signs of life with a red band of light glowing around it and a section at the front begins moving forward revealing a view inside the ship with a single figure inside at the controls.

As the unknown ship turns to face the Alliance everyone takes their seats and mans their posts, Col Swanson orders activation of the shields "Are we receiving any communication from the ship?" she asks and Carter tells her she's receiving nothing and so Swanson attempts to communicate with the ship again "This is Col Swanson captain of the Alliance, we mean you no harm please respond", nothing is heard back and so she tries again "If you continue moving towards us we will assume your actions are hostile and we will be forced to open fire do you understand?".

Swanson orders reverse engines to move the ship back but the unknown ship continues to follow so Swanson turns to Carter "Fire a warning shot". The warning shot appears to do nothing and the unknown ship didn't even flinch but continues to move forward getting ever closer to the Alliance so Swanson hoping for a peaceful outcome reluctantly gives the order to fire.

Several shots are fired at the ship but it appears to absorb everything thrown at it "It's not working, even with the weapons at full power it's taking no damage at all" shouts Carter then as the unknown ship gets within touching distance it just turns around and flies away. "Where did it go?" asks Swanson "Our sensors can't detect it but it looks like it's gone" replies Carter... "Yes, but I have a feeling we'll see it again." Swanson orders the Alliance head back to Earth.


	2. Chapter 2

Back on Earth the leaders of the alliance worlds are filled in on the situation with the unknown ship and they request all ships look out for it and report immediately if it's encountered, Col Swanson returns to the Alliance.

After the debrief O'Neill and Carter join Daniel Jackson in his office to discuss the message "Hey Sam I heard you had a situation out there" says Daniel "Yes it was pretty tense for a while, any look figuring out what the message means?" asks Carter and Daniel explains that the language used in the message is one the Ancients used when they first arrived in our galaxy millions of years ago and it's not clear why but they stopped using it shortly after their arrival and that's why he didn't recognize it at first, and the only reference he has to it is from photos taken of a stone column in the ruins of the Ancient lost city.

"Are you saying the message came from the Ancients?, the ship we encountered didn't look Ancient to me." asks Carter and Daniel says he really doesn't know and that he's sent the message to McKay to run through the Atlantis database and see if he comes up with anything.

"Well let's hope so. Sir any progress on the device we found?" asks Carter to which O'Neill replies "Nothing yet but after what just happened I'd rather have you working on it. I'll arrange transport for you to the facility." and Carter heads off to continue running tests on the mysterious device.

Back on P3R-272 the figures in black are standing at an Ancient console pushing switches and on the display in front of them are letters in the same language as the message the Alliance received and the letters are moving around as they push switches as if trying to get the right sequence.

The cylinder they brought with them is wired in to the side of the console like some type of power source and beneath the console is a translucent window with a blue crystal locked away behind it. Eventually they manage to enter the correct sequence and the window opens allowing them to reach in and grab the crystal, they lift it up and step away from the console then at that moment they are transported out of the room on to the unknown ship which is now in orbit above the planet and it flies away.

At the same time as the crystal is taken from the Ancient console on P3R-272, in Pegasus on Atlantis McKay is running the message Daniel sent him through the Ancient database and arguing with Zelenka over how best to fit the Jumpers with hyper drives.

McKay turns to his laptop and begins entering some code "Look the math is perfect this is the most efficient way to do it" shouts McKay "No, no your power calculations are all wrong" replies Zelenka "Oh really" says McKay "Yes really" replies Zelenka "The calculations are fine you don't know what you're talking about, I'm right you're wrong.." at this point Woolsey walks over and tells them to keep it down and work together instead of shouting at each other.

"He started it" says McKay to which Woolsey replies "I don't care who started it just stop it..people are trying to work in here and you're acting like school children".

Zelenka gets on the laptop "Let me show you" as Woolsey turns to walk away and they start arguing again but suddenly the city's alarms go off and every screen displays a flashing red symbol "Now what did you do" shouts McKay "I did nothing, it wasn't me" replies Zelenka.

Sheppard, Ronan and Teyla run into the control room to find out what's going on just as Atlantis is locking down and closing doors behind them "What the hell's going on Rodney" asks Sheppard "I..I..I ….get out of the way" replies McKay while pushing Zelenka out of the way and getting back on his laptop "I'm locked out, I don't have access to anything" says McKay.

The shields activate and Atlantis' drives start up and begins taking off "MCKAY!" shouts Sheppard "I can't do anything!" shouts McKay "It's doing it by itself" Sheppard, McKay and Woolsey look at each other in disbelief "There's nothing I can do" says McKay, Sheppard isn't too happy about what's happening "We have teams off world Rodney, you need to stop the city taking off" "I can't!" replies McKay.

Woolsey looks at a display and asks what does the symbol mean "Are we under attack, is it a viral outbreak" McKay replies "No if it was it wouldn't have locked us out we would still have limited access to some systems but we're completely locked out."

Woolsey asks "OK what were you doing before this happened?" McKay looks at the laptop "We were working on a way to fit Jumpers with hyper drives and running a database scan on a message sent from Dr Jackson" Woolsey "Could the message have affected the system in some way, maybe it's a virus" to which McKay replies "No. The database is isolated from the main systems it has no direct access and can't affect them even if it was a virus. I scanned it before running it...I'm not an idiot" McKay looks over to Zelenka while saying the last part of the sentence.


	3. Chapter 3

As Atlantis reaches orbit and enters hyperspace the lock down ends, doors open and system access comes back online.

"We're back in" says McKay "Can you take us back?" asks Woolsey, "We have access to most systems but we're still locked out of flight controls" replies McKay and Woolsey looks disappointed and asks "Do you have any idea where the city is going?".

McKay moves over to navigation console and displays a projected course on the screen "Here, somewhere in the middle of Pegasus" says McKay "Do we know what's in that area?" asks Woolsey "Perhaps a world we've visited before" says Teyla in the background, and Zelenka gets on the laptop and checks the gate database for addresses in the area of space "No, nothing. That region of space appears to have no stargates" says Zelenka.

"Could someone be controlling the city from somewhere else?" asks Sheppard "It's possible but unlikely" replies McKay "OK Ronan, Teyla you're with me, we're going to do a sweep of the city just in case" says Sheppard "Be careful" says Woolsey. As Sheppard, Teyla and Ronan are walking down the corridor Ronan turns to Sheppard "Wraith?" asks Ronan "That's what I'm worried about" replies Sheppard "Let's get some weapons and go find out." and McKay and Zelenka get to work trying to access the flight controls.

A while later McKay gets on the radio "Sheppard this is McKay did you find anything?", "Nothing yet" replies Sheppard "Well you better get back up here we're almost there...wherever there is" says McKay "Copy that, heading back to the control room." replies Sheppard.

Back in the control room as Atlantis enters normal space, Woolsey turns and looks at Sheppard as he walks through the door and Sheppard simply shakes his head signalling they found nothing, "We've arrived" says Woolsey "What's out there?" asks Sheppard "Detecting just 1 planet" says McKay "That's it?" asks Woolsey "No energy signatures, no life signs and nothing else in the immediate area. According to the database the planet doesn't even exist, it's not been charted." replies McKay.

"OK I say we take a Jumper and check it out" says Sheppard and Woolsey agrees ordering McKay to go with them, "Oh great" utters McKay as they head off to the Jumper bay.

Back on Earth O'Neill is summoned to the gate room "What's going on?" asks O'Neill "The gate activated but we have no off world teams and we're not receiving an IDC, Sir" says Walter (Chevron guy) "Wrong number?" says O'Neill jokingly.

After a few moments a woman appears and comes straight through the IRIS and collapses to the floor, it's Lya of the Nox.

Walter gets on the radio "Medical team to the gate room!" and O'Neill rushes to the gate ramp and kneels and holds Lya who appears to be very badly injured "Lya?, what happened?" asks O'Neill and Lya looks at him then puts her hand in her hair and pulls out a small black crystal and hands it to O'Neill.

"What's this?" asks O'Neill and Lya reaches around O'Neill's neck and pulls his head down and with his ear to her mouth with a very weak low voice she says "Verdain...verdain...forgive us" and O'Neill turns his head and asks "Forgive you for what?", as Lya becomes still and limp in O'Neill's arms her arm falls away to the floor "Lya!...Lya!...where's that medical team!" shouts O'Neill.

The medical team arrives and rushes over so O'Neill steps away looking back and forth at the crystal in his hand and Lya on the floor and Daniel comes in "Jack?...is that Lya...JACK!" he shouts "She's gone Daniel" says O'Neill as he looks at the medics and they confirm silently there's nothing they can do, Lya is dead.

O'Neill starts walking out "Jack where are you going?" asks Daniel "To find out what's going on" replies O'Neill in a very upset voice and as he passes an SG Team standing in the hallway looking in at what's happening, he turns to them "I want your team suited up and ready to go in 5 minutes!" orders O'Neill.

Daniel follows O'Neill through the hallway and grabs his shoulder to turn him around "Jack what's going on?" asks Daniel "She gave me this" says O'Neill "A crystal...what happened to her, Jack?" says Daniel, "I don't know but I'm going to Gaia to find out." replies O'Neill as he walks off "I'm coming with you" shouts Daniel as they head off to get suited up.

O'Neill and Daniel along with Major Henley, Lt James, Lt Vasqes and Col Dawson are assembled in the gate room "Dial it up" says O'Neill to Walter who begins the dialing sequence.

"Who would attack the Nox?" asks Daniel "I don't know Daniel" replies O'Neill "Chevron seven is locked" announces Walter and the gate opens "OK let's go" says O'Neill as they begin walking up the ramp "WAIT" shouts Carter running into the gate room "Carter?, I thought you were at the facility?" says O'Neill "I was Sir, I just got back to the SGC when I heard what happened. I can't believe it." says Carter "OK let's go Carter" says O'Neill and they all head through the gate.

"Fan out and keep your eyes open" O'Neill orders as they step through the gate on Gaia (the Nox home world) "Seems pretty quiet" says Carter as they start moving away from the gate and Daniel looks around "Oh my God!" says Daniel looking up at the clouds behind them with a shocked look on his face and they all turn around to see the floating city of the Nox up in flames, completely devastated and slowly falling to the grown "Oh my God, who could do this to the Nox?" asks Carter.


	4. Chapter 4

Sheppard, McKay, Ronan and Teyla are on board a Jumper heading for the planet.

"Why did I have to come?" moans McKay "Because" replies Sheppard "Because why?" says McKay "Just because" says Sheppard "I have better things to do you know" says McKay "Like what?" asks Sheppard "Well let me see...errm...getting the Atlantis flight controls back online for one!" shouts McKay "Stop complaining" replies Sheppard.

They're almost at the planet and a scan of the planet appears on the Jumpers HUD and a flashing light indicating something is on the surface "Huh I guess there is something down there" says McKay "What is it?" asks Teyla "Let's go take a look" replies Sheppard.

They descend through the atmosphere and head towards the indicated marker on the HUD and as they get closer they see a large stone structure "Right there look there it is" says McKay "I see it Rodney" replies Sheppard as he maneuvers the Jumper and lands in front of the structure.

They open the back of the Jumper and pick up their weapons checking they're loaded and then head outside.

Standing at the face of the structure at what appears to be a large closed doorway "I recognize these writings" says Teyla "What does it say?" asks Ronan "I do not know" says Teyla "I thought you said you recognized it" blurts McKay "I do not know what it says but it is the same writing as that in the city of the ancestors on Athos. There are other writings here I do not recognize." says Teyla.

"OK McKay get to work" says Sheppard "Right. Give me a minute" says McKay as he gets to work trying to figure out how to gain access to the structure.

McKay has a look around the doorway and steps back to the others "Huh." says McKay "What?" asks Sheppard "I can't open it" says McKay "McKay" says Sheppard "What? I know you all think I'm a genius and you're right I am but do you see a handle or a switch anywhere around here!. There's no energy signatures or anything, I don't have a clue how to open this." says McKay in an irritating manner.

"C4?" says Sheppard "Wait, wait, wait, wait" shouts McKay as he starts feeling around the door "What are you doing, McKay" asks Sheppard "I remember something from Daniel Jackson, when he was on a mission with a Russian team they came across an old stone door and he opened it by pushing symbols in sequence" replies McKay.

McKay spends a few minutes feeling around and manages to locate 5 protruding symbols "OK looks like a 5 symbol combination" says McKay "Good work Rodney, what's the combination?" asks Sheppard as they all turn and look at one another and after a moment of silence "Well I guess we start entering random combinations and hope we get lucky" says McKay "Good idea" replies Sheppard.

Back on Gaia, O'Neill and his team are stunned at the state of the Nox city "OK everyone fan out and keep your eyes open for the Nox or..whoever" says O'Neill and they all head off in to the woods.

The woods are eerily silent "This is creepy" says Carter "Yeah, keep your eyes open" replies O'Neill "This doesn't make any sense" says Daniel as he stops and sits on a tree stump "Daniel" says Carter and they hear a branch crack behind them and turn to face it with weapons pointed "What was that?" asks Daniel "Get back" orders O'Neill so Daniel and Carter move behind a tree "See anything?" asks Carter "Nothing" replies O'Neill.

Moments later they hear gunfire and O'Neill gets on his radio "Dawson report" he says quietly "We've engaged hostiles, Sir" shouts Col Dawson down the radio "Let's go!" shouts O'Neill as they head to Dawson's location.

They arrive to see the other team under heavy fire from a single black figure using some type of laser weapon and they join the fight and begin firing, their bullets appear to do no damage at all as the figure continues moving towards them.

Lt James runs out of ammunition and pulls his knife from his belt and rushes toward the figure but the figure swings his arm and launches Lt James into the air and against some trees like he was a rag doll.

Carter and Henley circle around to check on Lt James "Henley?" shouts O'Neill "He's badly injured Sir" shouts Henley "Fall back" shouts O'Neill and they all move backwards still firing at the figure and Carter and Henley pull Lt James out of the way.

With everyone now moved back, O'Neill steps forward and pulls out a grenade and throws it just ahead of the figure "DOWN!" he shouts as the grenade explodes and they all hit the ground covering their heads, they lift their heads to look behind them and see the figure unaffected and still coming "It didn't work" says Dawson "Fall back to the gate" says O'Neill and they all rush back to the gate with Dawson carrying Lt James on his shoulder.

Daniel is the first back at the gate and begins dialing Earth but stops part way through "Sam" says Daniel "What?" says Carter as Daniel points to a black device latched to the gate. "What are you waiting for, dial it up" says O'Neill rushing up behind them "Sir there's a device on the gate" says Carter and O'Neill looks at it "Just dial it up" he says.

The gate activates and Daniel sends the ID "Good to go" he shouts as he runs through the gate with everyone following behind "Go, Go" says O'Neill as Dawson runs passed him with Lt James on his shoulders while O'Neill lays down cover fire at the figure that is still moving towards them. O'Neill gets to his feet and runs towards the gate but just as he reaches it the black device emits a red glow and the gate shuts off.

O'Neill looks bewildered and turns around to see the black figure still approaching so raises his weapon to fire but he's out of ammo "God" he says and throws his P90 to the floor and takes out his hand gun, drops to one knee and empties the chamber toward the figure then looks down at his gun when the ammo runs out and looks back up at the figure with a worried look on his face.

The figure stands still and raises his laser weapon pointed at O'Neill "Who are you. What are you." shouts O'Neill. Then suddenly he hears large weapons fire that directly hits the figure in black and blasting a big hole in the ground and O'Neill looks to the sky and sees an Al'Kesh hovering above and voice comes over the radio "Are you ok O'Neill" it says and O'Neill reaches over to his radio "Teal'c?" he asks "It is I O'Neill. Do you require assistance" says Teal'c "Sure. Great timing by the way." replies O'Neill.

"SGC this is Teal'c, O'Neill is fine." Teal'c radios in to Earth and everyone is relieved.

"Move away from the gate and I will ring you aboard O'Neill" says Teal'c "Right" replies O'Neill as he stands up and walks over to the hole in the ground and looks in..he sees pieces of black armuor scattered around but no blood or body in sight.

O'Neill is ringed on board the Al'Kesh and puts his hand on Teal'cs shoulder "Good to see you buddy" says O'Neill "And you" replies Teal'c "What are you doing here anyway?" asks O'Neill "I heard about Lya and thought you may require my assistance" replies Teal'c "I'm glad you came" says O'Neill "As am I" says Teal'c", "Let's go home" says O'Neill and the Al'Kesh flies off headed for Earth.

**Back in Pegasus**

McKay has been entering random sequences using the 5 symbols on the stone doorway for some time and he finally gets the correct combination and the doorway opens with dust flying from beneath it and a strong gust of wind as the corridor fills with air.

"OK who wants to go down the creepy corridor first?" says McKay and Ronan pulls out his gun and walks through the doorway cautiously with the others following and they continue walking down a very long dark corridor "Do you hear that?" asks Teyla "Hear what I don't hear anything" says McKay and Sheppard looks up "LOOK OUT" he shouts and hugs the wall just as a piece of the ceiling falls to the floor.

"That was close" he says "Maybe we should err go back to the Jumper" says McKay "It looks solid enough for now" says Ronan "Let's keep going" says Sheppard and they continue walking slowly.

Eventually they come to the entrance to a large room "Sheppard" says Ronan and they both stand at either side of the entrance, Sheppard turns and signals to McKay and Teyla to wait here and then he and Ronan slowly step in to and sweep the room. "John" whispers Teyla "It's clear" replies Sheppard "There's no other doors in here" says Ronan as he walks back to the group.

"We went through all of that for an empty room, are you serious" moans McKay then at the back of the room a light illuminates a part of the wall and Sheppard walks over to it and sees something, he calls McKay over "What, what is it?" he asks as he walks over to the wall "A crystal" says McKay as he picks it up "So not an empty room" says Sheppard "Guess not" says McKay.

"They built all this for that" asks Ronan "What is it for?" asks Teyla "I don't know yet" replies McKay while examining the crystal.

Just then they hear a rumbling sound and parts of the ceiling collapse "Time to go" shouts Sheppard "Wait there may be more in here" shouts McKay "No time Rodney" says Sheppard as he grabs McKay and pulls him out of the room.

They run through the dark corridor with the structure collapsing behind them "Move, move" shouts Sheppard and they just make it out by jumping through the doorway a split second before it fully collapses.

"Is everyone alright" asks Teyla "I'm good" says Ronan "McKay?" says Sheppard "Yeah yeah I'm fine" says McKay "Let's get back to Atlantis" says Sheppard and so they get to their feet and head for the Jumper.


	5. Chapter 5

"Atlantis this is Sheppard we're on our way back" radios Sheppard "Glad to hear you're ok Colonel, did you find anything?" asks Woolsey "We found a crystal" says Sheppard "A crystal?" asks Woolsey "Yes, McKay's working on it" says Sheppard.

"Dr McKay will be very happy to know we have the flight controls back online" says Woolsey "That's great" says McKay "Hurry back Colonel we're ready to leave as soon as you're on board" says Woolsey "Leave?" says Sheppard "General O'Neill has ordered us to return to Earth" replies Woolsey "What's going on?" asks Sheppard "I wasn't told, I was just asked to return to..." says Woolsey but he stops talking "Woolsey?" says Sheppard "Colonel we have an intruder" replies Woolsey "Woolsey? Woolsey?" asks Sheppard but he gets no response.

On Atlantis a figure in black has appeared seemingly out of nowhere and is standing below the control room near the Stargate looking up and around at the people above.

A security team run through the doors on the gate level and point their guns at the figure in black but he doesn't seem to care "Don't move" a few of them shout "Stay where you are or I will order them to open fire" announces Woolsey and he heads for the staircase leading to the gate level and the figure turns and looks at Woolsey standing at the top of the stairs.

"Who are you" asks Woolsey but gets no reply "How did you get in here" asks Woolsey but still gets no reply "OK what is it you want?" asks Woolsey but still gets no reply.

Then they see a bright flash of light and appearing behind the figure is Chaya Sar, the Ancient, Athar. The security team look a little gob smacked and move back, the figure notices Woolsey looking behind him towards Chaya and turns around to face her.

Sheppard, Ronan, Teyla and McKay have made it back to Atlantis and are running to the control room.

Chaya and the figure look at each other for a moment "You are Alteran" says the figure "Yes, but what are you?" asks Chaya "I feel all life and all that exists in the universe but you...I do not feel you. Why?" she says sounding slightly puzzled.

Chaya walks up to the figure "What are you?" she asks and then without provocation the figure reaches out with his arm, grabs Chaya by the kneck and lifts her off the ground and oddly Chaya seems powerless to do anything.

Sheppard, Ronan, Teyla and McKay run into the control room and Sheppard looks at Woolsey "What's going on?" he asks and then he glances over and sees Chaya being held in the air by the figure "Chaya" says Sheppard under his breath and raises his gun and starts firing at the figures back "HEY!" shouts Sheppard continuing to fire.

Ronan joins in from the balcony above but despite their combined fire power it doesn't affect the figure so Sheppard attempts to tackle him but the figure pushes him away.

Ronan jumps from the balcony on to the figures back and starts 'pounding' him on the top of the head but the figure pulls him off by the face and throws Ronan against the wall. Chaya trying to remove his hand from around her kneck and choking asks the figure to stop "S..t..o..p" she says "Tell your people they can't hide from us" says the figure "Who are you" says Chaya struggling to breath and the figure brings her closer to his face and says in a menacing tone of voice ….."The Verdain."

The moment Chaya heard the name Verdain her eyes opened wide and her mouth opened with a gasp and the look on her face was one of absolute disbelief "No" says Chaya and the Verdain removed his grip on her causing her to fall to the floor and he faded away as quickly as he appeared.

Sheppard got to his feet and ran over to Chaya who is holding herself up by her arms and holding her head down and Sheppard kneels in front of her and holds her shoulders "Chaya" he says in a gentle voice and places one hand under her chin and gently lifts up her head to look at her. Chaya looks up at Sheppard and he can see she is very upset and has tears running down her face.

"It's ok he's gone" says Sheppard and Ronan walks over rubbing the back of his head "Ooaar..you ok?" he asks "Yeah, you" asks Sheppard "I'm good, is she ok" replies Ronan "Chaya he's gone he can't hurt you" says Sheppard to Chaya.

"We tried, we couldn't.." Chaya mutters while shaking her head and still crying "I have to go" says Chaya rubbing the tears away from her eyes she gets to her feet "Chaya, wait" says Sheppard but it's too late she vanished in a bright light.

Ronan and Sheppard start walking up the stairs to the control room "What was that thing?" asks Ronan "It called itself a Verdain or something" replies Sheppard "Col Sheppard, what just happened here?" asks Woolsey "Honestly I have no idea" replies Sheppard "Well if that thing is the reason we're being called to Earth then we better get there quickly" says Woolsey "Agreed" says Sheppard "Dr McKay take us in to hyperspace, we're going to Earth" orders Woolsey.


	6. Chapter 6

With Atlantis now back in the Milky Way, O'Neill, Daniel, Carter, Teal'c, Sheppard, McKay, Ronan, Teyla and Woolsey are in a briefing room at the SGC. They all go over what has happened and inform each other of their encounters with the Verdain.

"So any ideas what these crystals are for?" asks O'Neill "Well Sir we don't yet know what the crystal Lya gave you is for but the one McKay found looks like a data crystal." replies Carter "What's on it?" asks O'Neill "Well..." says Carter who is interrupted by McKay "We don't know yet, we're working on a way to access the data" he says "OK Carter, McKay get to work on that thing. I want to know the second you have something" says O'Neill and Carter and McKay leave the room.

"Sheppard" says O'Neill "Sir" replies Sheppard "Have you heard anything else from our Ancient friend?" asks O'Neill "No Sir but before she disappeared she was very upset about something." replies Sheppard "Yeah about that, you said the Verdain held her by the throat?" asks Daniel "Yes he had a pretty good grip on her too" replies Sheppard.

"That doesn't make any sense" says Daniel "That's what happened" says Ronan, "The Ancients are ascended beings and they have almost unlimited power." says Daniel "What are you saying Daniel?" asks O'Neill "I've never seen or heard of the Ancients being powerless like that, if she was unable to defend herself then these Verdain must be more powerful than they are. And let's not forget they also took out the Nox, if the Nox and the Ancients are unable to stop them then what chance do we have if they come for us." replies Daniel and a feeling of worry fills the room.

"Look we don't even know if these..what? What?" says O'Neill looking at Daniel "Verdain" replies Daniel "We don't even know if these Verdain are coming for us, our only encounters with them so far have been off world" says O'Neill "One appeared on Atlantis" says Woolsey "Did it attack you?" asks O'Neill "No, didn't seem that interested in us actually" replies Woolsey "Well, there you go" says O'Neill.

"What about the Ancients" asks Daniel "What about them" replies O'Neill "Well the Verdain are obviously after them, shouldn't we try to help them?" says Daniel "No" replies O'Neill and Daniel looks around the room and looks back at O'Neill "Why not?" asks Daniel "If the Verdain have a problem with the Ancients then let them fight it out, it's not our problem." replies O'Neill "Jack.." says Daniel who is interrupted by O'Neill "No, Daniel. Whenever we needed their help they did squat, so why should we care now it's their asses on the line." replies O'Neill.

"General O'Neill we're receiving a message from Col Swanson" announces Walter over the radio "Put her through" says O'Neill "General we've detected a ship approaching Earth" says Swanson "Hostile?" says O'Neill "Unknown Sir" replies Swanson "Beam us aboard Col" says O'Neill and they are beamed on board the Alliance.

Everyone is no on the Alliance's bridge "What do you have?" asks O'Neill "We're having a little trouble with our sensors but we believe it's a single ship and heading right for us." replies Swanson "We should return to Atlantis" says Woolsey "Go" says O'Neill and Swanson looks over to transport control and gives the nod to beam them to Atlantis. "Have you tried communicating with them?" asks O'Neill "Yes Sir, no response" replies Swanson "Do you think it's them" says Daniel "Hope not" replies O'Neill "Where about to find out." says Swanson and gives the order to activate shields and ready all weapons.

A ship drops out of hyperspace "It's the same ship we encountered near Proclarush" says Swanson and the ship immediately opens fire on the Alliance "Fire. Fire" orders Swanson.

The Verdain ship is small and fast making it hard for the Alliance to get aim on it and they're quickly losing the fight as the Verdain ship passes by unleashing a barrage of weapons fire along the Alliances hull. "Destroy that ship" shouts O'Neill while being thrown around the bridge "Fire everything" shouts Swanson and after many misses they finally hit the Verdain ship with the Asgard weapon which although appears to cause no damage it sends the Verdain ship spinning and they retreat.

"There gone for now. Damage report?" says Swanson and crew members report in saying the engines are fried, shields are down to 8 percent, life support has failed on several decks and their primary weapon (the Asgard beam) is offline. Then the proximity alarm sounds "There coming back." says Swanson "Oh Crap" says O'Neill "Everyone brace for impact" announces Swanson.

As the Verdain ship heads back toward the Alliance and opens fire they brace themselves for what will surely be the destruction of the Alliance.

Suddenly the Verdain weapons fire is deflected "Alliance this is Atlantis, we've extended our shields around you" announces Woolsey over the radio "Well it's about time" replies O'Neill and Sheppard from the Atlantis chair room fires drones at the Verdain ship.

The drones are causing very little damage but they continue to fire and the Verdain ship turns it's attention to Atlantis, the Verdain ship breaks off and begins to build some type of charge around it..then it turns back toward Atlantis and fires an energy beam at their shields which shakes Atlantis "Our shields are weakening" shouts Teyla "What?!" replies Woolsey while looking at the monitors "Col Sheppard we don't have much time" says Woolsey over the comms "This isn't easy" replies Sheppard and the Verdain ship continues to fire a beam weapon at Atlantis's shields draining them on every shot.

A Verdain then appears in the Atlantis control room "Ronan!" shouts Teyla as she sees the Verdain and Ronan pulls his gun set to kill and fires off repeatedly at the Verdain but as before it does nothing. Ronan is pretty p*ssed off after what happened last time "Ooaaarrrr!" screams Ronan as he charges towards the Verdain and he tackles it by the waist which sends them both flying over the balcony to the floor below.

They both stand up and away from each other and Ronan ties his hair back "Come on" taunts Ronan to the Verdain and the Verdain moves forward and reaches out to grab Ronan but he dodges the grab and kicks the Verdains leg sending him kneeling to the floor then he grabs the Verdain and starts kneeing him in the head sending him flying onto his back. As Ronan runs over to pound him some more the Verdain vanishes and Ronan stops and looks around "COWARD" he shouts.

Sheppard is still firing at the Verdain ship but still causing little damage as it continues to fire at Atlantis's shield "Our shields can't take much more of this" says Teyla and Woolsey gets on the radio "Alliance, I'm afraid we're losing this fight. Sorry General, we tried" says Woolsey "It's OK Woolsey, you did good" replies O'Neill and crew members of both the Alliance and Atlantis look at each other knowing they're losing the fight. "Woolsey we can't allow them to get down to Earth" says O'Neill "I know General. I recommend we initialise the self destruct." replies Woolsey "Yeah" says O'Neill but before they can activate it they detect another ship.

"There's another ship approaching" says Teyla "General we're detecting another ship heading this way" says Woolsey "Yes we know, we're detecting it too" replies O'Neill "Let's hope the self destruct take them both out" says O'Neill. Another Verdain ship appears "Everybody brace" says Swanson once again but instead of attacking the Alliance or Atlantis it goes after the other Verdain ship "They are attacking each other O'Neill" says Teal'c.

The new ship fires on the first one which appears to be very effective and after a while successfully destroys the attacking Verdain ship. Sheppard sits up in the ancient chair "Woolsey did you see that?" he asks "Yes Col" replies Woolsey "Should I shoot this one?" asks Sheppard "Stand by Col" replies Woolsey. "General the attacking ship appears to have been destroyed" says Woolsey "We noticed" replies O'Neill "What should we do about this one" asks Woolsey.

Suddenly both the Alliance and Atlantis receive a video communication and a 3 figures in black appear on screen "WAIT" one of them shouts "We're not a threat". "What's going on up there?" asks Sheppard "We're receiving a communication from the ship" replies Woolsey "I'm heading back to the control room." says Sheppard and he gets out of the chair and heads back.

Daniel, Swanson and O'Neill look at each other "Oh yeah, tell that to the last one that tried to kill us" says O'Neill "We're not Verdain." it replies "Really. Well you look like a Verdain to me." replies O'Neill and the figure removes its helmet revealing the face of a young girl "My name is Alisana, I'm a Novum." O'Neill looks at Daniel "Daniel?" he says "Err.." says Daniel and shrugs his shoulders indicating he has no clue.


	7. Chapter 7

The other 2 Novum remove their helmets and we see a young boy and girl "This is Jomar and Raina" says Alisana "Please we must speak with the council" requests Alisana "The council?" asks Daniel and Alisana looks at Jomar and Raina and faces back at the screen "This is Terra is it not?" she asks and O'Neill looks at Daniel with his (What's that) look on his face "Earth" says Daniel "Ah" says O'Neill "Yes this is Terra" says Daniel to Alisana "Then you must take us to the council immediately" says Alisana.

"I don't know what you mean, what council?" asks Daniel "The leaders of the 3 races of the alliance" replies Alisana and Daniel thinks for a second then moves to stand closer to the video screen "Alisana I think we should talk in person." says Daniel "Er Daniel" says O'Neill "I don't think they're a threat Jack, I mean look at them their just kids." says Daniel and O'Neill looks at Teal'c and Teal'c gives him the eyebrow "Alright but we do it my way, unarmed and under guard at all times." says O'Neill "They can dock their ship in the bay" says Swanson "Come on board" says Daniel and Alisana agrees to land the ship in the bay.

Sheppard, Teyla, Ronan and Woolsey join Swanson, O'Neill, Daniel and Teal'c on board the Alliance in a secure room waiting for the Novum to be checked for weapons and stripped of their armor as a precaution.

The Novum are brought to the secure room wearing jump suits and under armed guard "Take a seat" says O'Neill and they take their seats around a large table while Ronan standing in a corner looking intimidating with his arms folded.

"Why did you remove our suits, are we prisoners?" asks Jomar "We've seen how strong those things are so we removed them, made us feel a little uneasy." says O'Neill "I..I'm sorry where is the council?" asks Alisana "The council of races?" asks O'Neill "Yes, the leaders of the Alterans, Nox and the Furlings." replies Alisana "And the Asgard, don't forget those little guys." says O'Neill "Who are the Asgard" asks Alisana.

The room goes silent and everyone looks around at each other "What is going on?" asks Alisana breaking the silence "The Asgard were a member of the great races you speak of." says Daniel "Were?" asks Raina "The Asgard and Furlings are extinct, the Nox were recently attacked by the Verdain and the Alterans left our galaxy thousands of years ago." Daniel explains.

The Novum look at each other unable to believe what they're hearing "No...that's not possible" says Raina "You're lying" says Jomar "I'm sorry we're not, we're telling you the truth." says Daniel "NO, you're deceiving us" shouts Jomar...then a white light fills the room and Chaya appears "They speak the truth" says Chaya to the Novum.

Alisana, Jomar and Raina jump from their seats and shuffle away from Chaya "What is that?" asks Jonah in a terrified tone of voice as they move backwards to a corner of the room.

"Don't be afraid" says Chaya "Stay away." shouts Jomar "I will not hurt you." replies Chaya and Alisana turns to face everyone "Please. We just want to go home." she says clearly shaken by what's happening. Daniel stands up and walks over to them "It's ok, she won't hurt you" he says reassuringly "She's an Alteran" says Daniel "That's not an Alteran" says Jomar "Yes she is. The Alterans learnt to ascend a long time ago, they...they found a way to shed their physical bodies and live as pure energy on a higher plane of existence, she's what we call an Ancient." explains Daniel.

After a few moments Raina shuffles passed Jomar, Alisana and Daniel and slowly walks toward Chaya and has a good look at her "You're really Alteran?" she asks softly and Chaya smiles at her "Yes." she replies in a soothing tone of voice and Raina smiles back at her then suddenly leans forward and embraces Chaya and begins to cry "We're really home" says Raina.

Jomar and Alisana begin to walk towards Chaya and she looks up and over to them "It's ok" she says while holding out her hand urging them to come over and they move up close to her and Raina and they join the embrace.

While this is going on the rest of the room look at each other in confusion "Err...scuse me" shouts O'Neill from across the room and Chaya, Alisana, Jomar and Raina look at O'Neill as he waves his hands about "I take it you know each other then?" he asks "Yes." says Chaya "That's good...Who are they?" asks O'Neill and Chaya looks at Alisana, Jomar and Raina "These are the Novum" replies Chaya "Yes we got that. Who are the Novum?" asks O'Neill "Our children." says Chaya.

As silence fills the room again, O'Neill turns his head slightly, unsure of what he just heard "Excuse me?" questions O'Neill "Children?" he says. Chaya turns to O'Neill for a second and nods and he pauses for a moment then sits back "Well I didn't see that one coming." says O'Neill.

"What?!" blurts Daniel "Yes, wha..what he said" stutters Sheppard pointing at Daniel "I didn't know Ancients could have children?" asks Woolsey "Children can not be conceived by the ascended" replies Chaya "This is all very confusing" whispers Teyla as she turns to Teal'c "Indeed" says Teal'c "Will someone please explain all this" says O'Neill.

Chaya begins to explain but as she does the other Ancients pull her away and the Novum are shocked "Where did she go?" asks Jomar "Did she leave us?" asks Raina "No, it would seem the others don't want her talking." says Daniel and the Novum look confused unable to understand what is happening "Now that. That I saw coming." says O'Neill.


	8. Chapter 8

O'Neill points at the Novum "Sit" he says, and the Novum sit down "Are you going to tell us what all that was about?" asks O'Neill and the Novum lower their heads and don't say anything "Is it true, you're the Ancients children?" asks Daniel "Where did you come from?" asks Woolsey and the Novum remain silent "Look someone better start talking." shouts O'Neill while leaning across the table "How do you expect us to trust you if you don't tell us anything" says Sheppard.

The Novum remain silent "OK if you don't want to tell us what all that was about then tell us why the Verdain attacked the Nox and why are they attacking us?" asks O'Neill and gets no response "They're not talking, O'Neill" says Teal'c "Come on give us something" shouts O'Neill "I'll get them to talk" says Ronon as he starts walking towards them, and the Novum lift their heads and lean back in their chairs afraid.

"That is enough" shouts Teyla as she quickly stands up from her chair and Ronon stops walking and looks at Teyla "Can you not see they are scared and confused" says Teyla "They are just children." she shouts "We don't know anything about them apart from their names and they like hugging the Ancients." says O'Neill

"They did destroy the Verdain ship" says Swanson "They too possessed a Verdain ship and could have destroyed us themselves, yet they did not" says Teyla "What's your point?" replies O'Neill "They have not shown any threatening behavior towards us." shouts Teyla "Calmed down, Teyla" says Sheppard "No, Col. An Ancient stood right here in this very room and she trusted them, why shouldn't we. If you wish to continue interrogating these children like this then I will play no part in it." shouts Teyla while making forceful hand/finger gestures and she storms off out of the room.

"Teyla" shouts Sheppard as he follows her out. "She's right, Jack" says Daniel and O'Neill looks at him and takes an intake of breath "Yeah I know, Daniel" says O'Neill and he rubs his forehead "Listen, you look like a nice bunch of kids and I'm sorry if we scared you." says O'Neill.

"Let's take a break" says O'Neill and everyone apart from the Novum get up and start to head out of the room "Sgt, get these kids some food." says O'Neill to a guard at the door, then O'Neill looks at the Novum "Thank's for saving our asses back there." he says and Alisana slowly looks up "You're welcome" she says and they share a gentle smile at each other before O'Neill leaves the room.

Woolsey and Daniel are waiting in the corridor for O'Neill to come out and they all start slowly walking to the bridge "What are we going to do about them, General?" asks Woolsey "I'm not sure yet" replies O'Neill "Athar said they are their children, what do you think she meant by that?" asks Woolsey and O'Neill turns to Daniel "Thoughts?" he says "A few" replies Daniel, then the conversation goes quiet and O'Neill turns to Woolsey then back to Daniel "Yes, and?...care to share them with us?" says O'Neill.

They all stop walking "Well...they referred to Earth as Terra, which is what the Ancients called it, then they said the 3 races of the alliance and when Jack mentioned the Asgard they didn't know who they were." explains Daniel "Yeah, so?" questions O'Neill "They were also pretty scared of Athar when she appeared, like they'd never seen an ascended being before." replies Daniel "But...she said they are their children, how can that be if they've never seen an ascended being?" asks Woolsey "I don't know. They also asked to see the council of the races which hasn't existed for thousands of years like they expected it to be there. It's as if they believe they're still in 'Ancient' times." replies Daniel while shrugging his shoulders a little

"Are you saying they're from the past?" asks Woolsey "Time travel?" asks O'Neill "We've seen it before." replies Daniel "We have?" asks O'Neill "Yes, when the Daedalus encountered the Lantean ship in Pegasus, well not technically time travel but they were stuck on their ship for thousands of years. Don't you remember they took back Atlantis and you were almost killed during an Asuran attack?" says Daniel and O'Neill thinks for a second "Ah..yes" replies O'Neill.

Sheppard and Teyla walk down the corridor toward them "General" says Sheppard "Sheppard...Teyla." says O'Neill and Teyla looks at everyone "I want to apologize for my outburst" she says "No need, you were right." says O'Neill "It will not happen again." says Teyla "It's ok" says Woolsey.

Swanson comes over the com "General O'Neill, you're needed on the bridge" she says, "Now what" says O'Neill and they quickly walk to the bridge.

"What is it?" asks O'Neill as he enters the bridge "O'Neill, Atlantis received a message from the Medronans." says Teal'c "What's the message?" asks O'Neill "O'Neill." replies Teal'c..."What?" replies a confused O'Neill.

Woolsey gets on the radio "Zelenka this is Woolsey, I understand you received a message from the Medronans?" he asks "Yes" replies Zelenka "What did it say?" asks Woolsey listening carefully "Just O'Neill. The gate activated and we received the Medronans IDC and a message just said O  
Neill." says Zelenka and O'Neill still looks confused "Why did they dial Atlantis" wonders O'Neill and Daniel turns to him "They didn't, they would have dialed Earth but because Atlantis is here their gate would have picked up the connection." he says.

"Is that all the message said?" asks O'Neill "Yes, General. The gate activated, we received the message and the gate went offline" says Zelenka "Dial them back and ask them what they want" says O'Neill "Er we tried that...we couldn't make a connection." says Zelenka "That's odd" says Daniel.

"Swanson..." says O'Neill who is interrupted by Swanson who knows what he's going to say "Sorry Sir we can't, we're still making repairs and the drives are offline. It's going to take us a couple of days at least, we're in no condition to go anywhere right now." she says and shrugs her arms in a sorry gesture then walks away to check on her crews progress.

Woolsey steps forward "We can take Atlantis" he says "Can it fly?" replies O'Neill "Zelenka what is the condition of Atlantis" asks Woolsey "We have a few malfunctioning power conduits which is causing problems but we're working on it." replies Zelenka "Is the hyperdrive working?" asks Woolsey "I'm sorry it's not, we can't use any of our primary systems until we solve the power problem, we're barely keeping the shields online. I'm sorry." replies Zelenka "How long will the repairs take?" asks Woolsey "A few hours maybe, probably a little faster if we had Rodney's help." says Zelenka.

O'Neill rubs his forehead again "Ok Swanson, lock on to Carter and McKay's locators and beam them both and us to Atlantis." says O'Neill "Yes Sir" replies Swanson "Jack, what about them?" asks Daniel as he points to a security monitor showing the secure room with the Novum inside "What about them" says O'Neill "Well...we can't just leave them here." replies Daniel "We should keep them close." says Teyla.

"Woolsey?" says O'Neill "It's your call General" replies Woolsey "Ok we'll take them with us." says O'Neill.

They arrive on Atlantis inside the control room "Welcome back" says Zelenka "Thank you, what's the progress of the repairs?" asks Woolsey but before Zelenka can respond..."What the hell?" moans McKay as he comes up the stairs with Carter "You could have warned us before beaming us up" moans McKay "There was no time Rodney" says Sheppard "Yeah but I was in the bathroom." says McKay while fastening his belt and Carter is walking behind him biting her lip trying not to laugh.

"Sir" says Carter as she stands by O'Neill "Carter, welcome aboard" says O'Neill "Thank you sir, do you want to brief me on what's going on, Sir?" asks Carter "Well we got attacked by the Verdain who almost destroyed the Alliance and Atlantis, then these 3 came out of nowhere and saved our asses, then we got a message from Medrona and that's where we're heading...eventually." says O'Neill "The Medronans, really?. What did they want?" asks Carter "Not a clue, but we can't get there using the gate so we're flying there...if Zelenka and McKay ever get this thing moving." says O'Neill.

"So where's Cam and Vala?" asks Carter and O'Neill looks at her secretively "On a hunt." he replies "A hunt Sir?" asks Carter "A hunt." replies O'Neill "Right. Well I'm gunna go see if I can help McKay." says Carter and she walks off.

"What's this...where's all the power gone?" moans McKay "We were in a fight with a Verdain ship, it drained our shields and several power conduits were damaged." says Zelenka "What?" says McKay "We don't have time, Rodney" shouts Sheppard "Dr McKay, we need to get the engines online as soon as possible, that's your priority." says Woolsey "Fine. I leave you people alone for 5 minutes" moans McKay under his breath, then he leaves to sort out the power problem.


	9. Chapter 9

"I'll go with him sir" says Carter as she follow McKay out of the control room. The Novum are standing over in the corner near the entrance to the outside balcony and Teyla walks over and stands by them "I am Teyla" she says and they look towards her and smile.

"Alisana, Raina and Jomar," says Alisana as she indicates to herself and the others in turn, "I am sorry about my yelling earlier." says Teyla apologetically "Please don't be. You spoke out for us, thank you." says Raina "Yes, thank you" says Jomar "You are welcome" replies Teyla.

Raina turns and stops smiling when she see's Ronon giving them an uneasy stare from the opposite side of the room, Teyla notices "Ignore him." says Teyla "He doesn't like us." whispers Jomar. Teyla let's out a gentle laugh "Ronon is always suspicious of new people, as we all are. He will come around when he sees you're not a threat." she says, and Jomar nods and looks back at Ronon who is still staring, Jomar lowers his head to look away.

A few minutes later McKay returns with Carter into the control room "Zelenka, check the power levels on the drive" says McKay, then Zelenka get's on his laptop and starts checking "Alright...err...83%" replies Zelenka "OK, we're ready." says McKay "Have you finished repairing the conduits already" asks a surprised Zelenka "No. But we have enough power to get the drive online" replies McKay.

"Are we good to go or not?" asks Sheppard "Yes" replies McKay and Sheppard looks at Woolsey and O'Neill, "Carter?" says O'Neill as he looks at Carter "We should be fine Sir." she replies. O'Neill looks back at Woolsey and Woolsey looks at McKay and gives him the nod "OK" he says, and they enter hyperspace headed for Medrona.

McKay checks the power levels and drive status "Ok everything looks good here, power is holding at 83%..we're good." he says "How long until we reach Medrona?" asks Sheppard "Oh, about 16 minutes" replies McKay "I'm going to check on the repairs, don't err...don't touch anything." says McKay as he heads off again with Carter.

As McKay passes by the Novum he gives them a quick glance and turns to Carter "Who are they?" he asks and Carter shrugs her shoulder's, "What are we recruiting teenagers now." mumbles McKay as he and Carter continue walking and leave the control room.

Alisana fidgets with her jumpsuit "Teyla" she says "Yes?" replies Teyla, Alisana leans toward Teyla "Do you think we could get some comfier clothes?" says Alisana in a low voice and Teyla gives her a gentle smile "I will be right back" she says and she heads towards Woolsey who is now in his office with O'Neill.

Teyla gets to the office and knocks on the side of the doorway "Mr Woolsey." says Teyla "What is it Teyla?" asks Woolsey who is standing next to O'Neill "The children have asked if they can be given new clothes." replies Teyla, "What's wrong with the jumpsuits?" asks O'Neill "They are not comfortable" she replies, Woolsey stiffens his posture "With all due respect Teyla, its not our job to make them...comfortable" he replies. "I understand that, but they are not our prisoners and it is not a big request." says Teyla then she moves a little closer to Woolsey and O'Neill "We need to earn their trust and allowing them this simple request would go some way toward earning it." says Teyla.

Woolsey takes a moment to think "Very well, but bring them rite back here, and they remain under guard at all times.", Teyla isn't happy about the guards but she doesn't let it show, and she agrees to Woolsey's terms "Thank you Mr Woolsey." says Telya while giving him a nod of respect and she leaves to take the Novum to go get some clothes.

Around 15 minutes later Atlantis drops out of hyperspace and everyone, including McKay, Carter, Teyla and the Novum who are now wearing Atlantis standard issue uniforms have gathered in the control room.

"General, we've arrived." says McKay "Good work. Sheppard, Carter, Teal'c you're with me." says O'Neill and they start heading toward the Jumper bay. "Wait, wait" shouts Zelenka while checking the sensors "What is it?" asks Sheppard "I'm picking up something very strange" says Zelenka "What" asks O'Neill "I'm not sure" replies Zelenka.

McKay goes over to see what Zelenka's going on about "Let me see." he says "You see?" says Zelenka "Huh" utters McKay "What?" asks O'Neill again, McKay walks over to a display and displays an image of Medrona on the screen "What the...is that Medrona?" asks Carter and they all move closer to the display.

Medrona looks weirdly translucent like its there, but also it isn't there. "What's happened to it?" asks Carter "I have no idea" says McKay "Me neither" says Zelenka, from the back of the room Raina sees the image of Medrona on the screen and runs over for a closer look.

"Fade." she whispers to herself and then turns to Jomar and Alisana "The fade has begun." she shouts, and the others at the display turn around not realizing she was there "What did you say?" asks Carter and Raina points at the display "That is the fade." she says "What's the fade?" asks O'Neill, Raina turns to him and opens her mouth a little as if she was going to say something but then doesn't.

O'Neill is quickly losing his patience with the Novum, "Alright that's it, I want you 3 in the briefing room..NOW" shouts O'Neill in a firm tone of voice and he swiftly walks to the briefing room.

The Novum, McKay, Carter, Teyla, Ronon, Teal'c, Woolsey, Sheppard and O'Neill are in the briefing room "Close the doors" says O'Neill and the doors begin to close, just before they shut Daniel runs in "What happened" he asks "Take a seat. Where have you been?" asks O'Neill to Daniel "I was in the hologram room trying to find information about the Verdain" replies Daniel "Find anything?" asks O'Neill "No, nothing. There's no information on them at all." says Daniel "What about these 3?" asks O'Neill while briefly pointing at the Novum "Nope." replies Daniel.

With everyone now sat in the briefing room O'Neill looks over at Teyla who looks back at O'Neill and signals to him with her facial expression that he should go easy on them and O'Neill turns to face the Novum.

"Comfortable?" says O'Neill to the Novum "Teyla reminded me earlier that we need to earn your trust, but that works both ways. The Verdain attacked the Nox, then they attacked us...and now this. Now I know that you know what's going on here, so I'm asking you, for the final time, please, tell us what's going on?" asks O'Neill.

Silence fills the room as everyone waits for a response, but O'Neill has had enough and he stands up "Fine. Colonel, take these kids to the holding room." he shouts "Yes Sir" replies Sheppard and he starts to get out of his chair when Raina suddenly breaks the silence.

"OK...OK" says Raina "What's happening to that planet out there, we call it the fade." she says, Sheppard and O'Neill return to their seats, "The Verdain are responsible for it?" asks O'Neill "Yes." replies Raina "What's the fade?" asks Woolsey "The fade is how the Verdain plan to get rid of all of us, soon every planet and every thing will cease to exist." explains Raina.

"How do we stop it?" asks O'Neill and Raina looks at Jomar and Alisana "Once the process has begun, it can not be stopped." says Alisana regretfully, "What about the people on the planet?" asks Carter "I'm sorry." replies Alisana gently shaking her head "Oh God, all those people" says Carter.

O'Neill leans back in his chair "What can you tell us about the Verdain?" he asks "And what do they want?" asks Woolsey. Raina places her arms gently on the table and leans forward a little "The Verdain are the most evil race you will ever know, they believe all life is inferior to them, they believe there should be only one race in the universe, the Verdain race. They are here to kill you all, anything living is seen as inferior and they intend to destroy it." explains Raina, and everyone's facial expression turns to worry.

"How can we stop them?." says Sheppard "You can't." replies Jomar "They can't be killed." says Raina "Wait a second, I was attacked by one of those things when I was on the Nox home world and Teal'c blew it up...and you blew up one of their ships." says O'Neill "A Verdain ship can be destroyed by another and hitting them with a strong enough amount of force will disrupt the bonds of their armor, but the Verdain within can't be killed. Did you see a body?." says Raina "No" replies O'Neill.

"The Verdain no longer have a physical form, they are something else." says Raina "Something else?" asks Carter "We don't know what they are." replies Raina "They're cowards" says Ronon who clearly has a grudge against the Verdain.

Two distorted balls of light appear in the center of the room and Col. Cameron Mitchell and Vala Mal Doran are beamed in to the briefing room "Mitchell, Vala." says O'Neill "Sir. We hitched a ride on the Alliance. Sorry to drop in unannounced but it couldn't wait." replies Mitchell, "Did you find them?" asks O'Neill "Yes Sir we did, you were right." replies Mitchell. Carter looks at O'Neill wondering what's been going on "Find what, Sir?" she asks, then O'Neill holds out his finger indicating to Carter to wait just a second and he looks at Mitchell with hope in his eyes "Is she..." questions O'Neill.

Mitchell smiles at O'Neill "See for yourself, Sir" and he steps aside, then as he steps aside a distorted figure emerges to reveal none other than Lya of the Nox. Carter and Daniel immediately stand up "Lya" they both say simultaneously, Ronon, Sheppard, Teyla and McKay are a bit knocked back by Lya's appearance as they've never seen a Nox before "General?" asks Sheppard to O'Neill, "Don't worry Colonel, she's a friend." replies O'Neill.


	10. Chapter 10

Carter turns to Mitchell "How did you.." questions Carter "The General sent us on a mission." replies Mitchell "When we got back to Earth after Teal's saved my a*** I asked Mitchell and Vala to take Teal'cs ship and Lya back to Gaia and look for the other Nox." says O'Neill, Carter thinks for a moment "Because you knew they could heal her. But how did you know any survived?" she says "I didn't, but come on, they're the Nox. Avoiding confrontations and hiding is what they do best, I knew there had to be some still alive." replies O'Neill.

O'Neill gets up from his seat and walks around to stand near Lya "Good to see you" he says in a very happy tone of voice, Lya bows her head "It is good to see you" she replies.

Lya turns and walks over to the table where the Novum are sitting and stands in front of them, she gives them a gentle bow of her head "I am Lya of the Nox" she says softly to the Novum. The Novum stand and bow their heads at Lya, then look at each other with smiles on their faces "Where are the others?" asks Lya and the Novum's happy expressions turn to slight sadness "We are the last." replies Jomar.

Lya's expression turns to one of regret and she turns around to face O'Neill "What has happened since our last encounter?" she asks "I went to Gaia to see what was going on but when we got there we didn't see any Nox and we saw your city was destroyed, then we bumped in to one of these Verdain and it almost killed us. The Verdain attacked us again but in one of their ships and almost killed us, if it wasn't for these kids we would probably be dead right now." replies O'Neill, "I see. I am thankful you are alive." says Lya "Back at you" replies O'Neill.

Daniel moves around the table to Lya "Hello" he says while smiling "Hello, Daniel" replies Lya "Lya, who are they?" asks Daniel wanting to know more about the Novum. Lya is a little surprised by his question "You don't know?" she replies "Not really. The Ancient Chaya Sar said they were her children, but we didn't know what she meant and before she could tell us more I think the other Ancients stopped her, they pulled her away." explains Daniel "They stopped her?" asks Lya "Yes." replies Daniel.

Lya steps back, closes her eyes and raises her head as if looking to the sky and after a few moments she says the words "Release her.". Then for a short while Lya doesnt say anything, Daniel and O'Neill share a look of wonder "Lya" says O'Neill who is taken back when Lya shouts "I said release her." she shouts quite loudly, Lya takes in a deep breath of frustration "I will give you a moment, but remind you that my patience will only last so long." she says.

"Erm...Lya?" says O'Neill and Lya opens her eyes and lowers her head to look at O'Neill "You ok?" asks O'Neill, Lya smiles at O'Neill "Yes, I am fine" replies Lya "We must take our seats" she says then walks around the table to sit down, O'Neill is still standing with Daniel, Vala and Mitchell in the center of the room and watches Lya walking around the table and sitting down "Rite." says O'Neill to those around him and everyone moves around to sit down.

With everyone seated, a few minutes pass by with no one talking "General, what are we waiting for?" whispers Woolsey leaning towards O'Neill and O'Neill shrugs his shoulders then faces Lya "Now what?" he asks her "We wait." replies Lya "Ah" says O'Neill and turns back to Woolsey "We wait." he says "What for?" asks Woolsey.

Suddenly in a flash of white light, Chaya is back. "I'm guessing that." says O'Neill to Woolsey.

"You're back" says Jomar "Yes" says Chaya smiling at the Novum. Chaya looks around the room and then steps forward towards Lya and bows her head "Thank you" she says to Lya who bows her head back at Chaya, "You can speak now. The others will not interfere." says Lya.

Chaya moves back to the middle of the room and begins to tell them about the Novum...

When my people first arrived in this galaxy we settled on a new world we called Dakara, and from there we set out to explore the galaxy. The galaxy and it's inhabitants were very different then to how it is now, we eventually came upon two indigenous races, the Nox and the Furlings who both had a wealth of knowledge and technology that was close to our own but that did not include space travel and they were unaware of each other.

Using the Stargates we introduced the Nox to the Furlings and eventually we realized what we could accomplish if we worked together and we soon formed an alliance to share our knowledge and technology.

Over many years the alliance grew strong, all our knowledge and technological advancement increased faster than it would have if we worked alone.

As the trust and friendship between our races increased over the years we decided to create a colony on Sehabo consisting of members from all 3 races, and many of the people in this colony began forming relationships and naturally they had children.

Due to these children having parents of different races they had amazing physical and mental abilities, they could learn very quickly and live a long life.

These children grew up really fast and in just a couple of years their physical form was that of a teenager, after reaching their teenage form their ageing slowed considerably.

These children, by their own choosing would eventually come to be known amongst our people as the Novum, children of the alliance.

"The new." says Daniel, O'Neill looks over to him "Excuse me?" he asks "Novum, it means the new." says Daniel who looks at Chaya "With members from different races having children they basically created a whole new race." says Daniel "Yes." replies Chaya.

"Why haven't we heard of them or met them before?" asks Daniel, at that point Lya leans forward in her chair, placing her hands on the table "Continue, Chaya." she says.

Most of the Novum were happy with who they were and did not believe they were any different to the rest of us, but there were a small few who believed they were. Those who believed they were better than the rest of us refused to work with the alliance and began fighting with the other Novum, as the fighting continued amongst them many of our people were injured and the rebellious Novum proved difficult to control.

Soon the rebels behaviour grew more destructive and they began a reign of terror on all our people, they destroyed many of our research facilities killing hundreds of people in an attempt to break up the alliance. The council branded their actions unacceptable and ordered their immediate detainment, but the rebels fled Sehabo before this could happen.

We didn't see or hear from them again until a few years later when they unexpectedly handed themselves in to the council.

Although their actions were clearly unacceptable and they had killed many of our people, they were still our children and we were pleased to see them again safe and well.

The rebels were brought before the council to explain themselves and they expressed genuine regret and apologised for their actions and wished to rejoin the alliance, but they also knew they had to be punished for what they had done.

The council ordered they be detained and transported to a planet without a Stargate where they would be given tasks to help all our people, such as growing crops and mining minerals until such time that we believe they're ready to rejoin the alliance.

They accepted this punishment and they were taken to a carrier ship and began their journey to the planet.

Shortly afterwards we lost contact with the carrier ship and then received a distress call from Sehabo, it was reported to the council that Novum children were vanishing from the surface before their very eyes.

Two of the alliance's ships were immediately dispatched to Sehabo and we arrived to see the carrier ship slowly being pulled in to a strange energy field behind them. We received a visual communication from the carrier ship, it was the rebels taunting us, calling us stupid and inferior and they were going to make us suffer.

We saw and heard the Novum children in the background of the transmission and we pleaded with the rebels not to harm them and asked them what they wanted. They replied in anger telling us they wanted nothing from us except our destruction and that we were an abomination.

We tried to move...

At this point Chaya can barely speak and is once again visually upset and crying, she drops to her knees and Sheppard gets out of his seat and quickly walks around to her "Chaya" he says as he gently lifts her back to her feet, Chaya looks at Sheppard and nods at him a few times "I'm ok" she says "Please continue" says Lya in a calming tone of voice.

Sheppard slowly lets go of Chaya's hand as he takes a few steps to the side and Chaya tries to compose herself and continues.

We tried to move our ships closer to the carrier but the energy field was too strong and it was preventing us from getting closer. We pleaded with them again asking them to stop and how could they do this to their own people, but again they refused and as the carrier was almost fully inside the energy field the rebels told us that this was just the beginning and one day they will destroy us all.

We watched helplessly as the carrier with Novum on board was engulfed in energy and their screams for help echoed through our ships as the carrier slowly disappeared before our eyes and although it felt like a lifetime, within moments they were gone.

At the final moment, the rebels sent us a message that simply read 'Verdain'.

We tried for years to find them, using every resource at our disposal we left no idea untried, but it would prove hopeless, the rebels being Novum were a lot smarter than we were and wherever they went we couldn't follow.

The alliance mourned the loss of our children but the alliance was never the same after that.

The Furlings, who were already a small population of just a few thousand lost most of their children that day and could not handle the loss, although they wished to remain a member of the alliance, they decided to gather what remained of their people and find a new home where they could live in peace and try to come to terms with that had happened.

After the Furlings left to find a new home, The Nox also found it tough to deal with and could not understand why this had happened. The Nox were unable to find any answers through technology so they began searching for them in a nature and the universe itself.

The Alterans also found it very tough and with the alliance unable to continue as it once did, we made the decision to leave Dakara and we built a new settlement on Terra where we continued to advance our technology in the hope that one day we would discover a way to bring back the children.

Chaya, who's face is wet from tears of sadness looks over to the Novum "We tried so desperately...Forgive us." she says in a shaky voice. The Novum with teary eyes jump from their seats and rush to Chaya and embrace her once again "It's ok, we don't blame you." whispers Raina.


	11. Chapter 11

Carter turns to Lya "How many of the Novum were taken?" she asks, Lya stares at the table for a moment then looks back up toward Carter, "All of them." she replies.

As Lya gets up to join Chaya and the Novum, it falls completely silent and emotions of sadness, disbelief and understanding fill the room. Everyone glances around at each other unsure of what to say, Teyla, Carter, Vala and McKay are visibly shedding tears.

Daniel sees Vala crying and changes seats to sit by her "Vala." he says and Vala sniffles "Oh Daniel" she says as she leans in and puts her head on his shoulder, Daniel puts his arm around her for comfort.

Sheppard sees McKay crying a little and goes over to him and nudges his arm "What's wrong with you?" he asks "What!" replies McKay "Pull yourself together." says Sheppard "Did you not just hear that." wails McKay while rubbing his face.

O'Neill gently interrupts Lya, Chaya and the Novum "Erm..Chaya, is it?" asks O'Neill and she looks over "I take it these are.." says O'Neill "The ones who were taken." replies Chaya "Sorry. Could you sit down for a minute please." requests O'Neill and the Novum return to their seats and Chaya and Lya remain standing in the middle of the room.

O'Neill still trying to take it all in sits up straight in his seat "How do you know all this?" he asks "What do you mean?" replies Chaya "Well, you said this happened when you first came to this galaxy, but Ancients ascended millions of years after that didn't they?" asks O'Neill who then turns to face Daniel for verification.

Vala sits back up and Daniel removes his arm from around her "That's right, you wouldn't have been born then, how do you know?" asks Daniel "As a child I was told of the Novum and it was sad even then, but when we ascended, certain memories and emotions are shared between our people and I remember the events and feel the emotions our people felt as if I was there." explains Chaya. "The Nox are also told of the Novum as children, to ensure they are never forgotten. In fact all of the Nox have spent many thousands of years trying to connect with the universe in an attempt to discover the fate of the Novum." says Lya.

Mitchell leans forward and points to the Novum "Where have they been, and why did they only come back now?" he asks, Chaya and Lya look towards the Novum and Raina starts explaining...

The Verdain referred to the place they took us as Intrius, it was completely dark, there was only one planet and no stars.

They landed the carrier on the planets surface and told us not to worry and that we would be going home soon, they told us we would be a part of the greatest race in the universe. They locked us in the carrier for days and when they finally returned they were dressed in black armour and they began taking small groups of us outside and they continued to do this for weeks, but none of the groups that were taken returned and they just kept taking more and more.

When I was taken outside in one of the groups, we were taken inside a large structure and as we were walking through the halls we went passed large doorways and I could see inside. They were constructing ships, hundreds of them in every room we passed, and it was very strange because they Verdains numbers had grown.

I quickly realized that the Verdain were converting us to their cause and using us to build their army, we were lead in to a brightly lit room and chained to a wall. They began taking people from our group to a large chamber at the end of the room and we could see what was happening to them.

As they stood in the middle of a glass chamber they were surrounded by bright light and a few moments later the light faded and all that remained was some strange orange energy, a suit of black armour rose from below and the orange energy entered it, then the armour came alive and left the chamber, I immediately knew that was how they were converting us.

I panicked and knew I had to get out of there, I managed to break free from my chains and free the others, only Jomar and Alisana were left. We snook passed the Verdain and after finding a way out we made our way towards the carrier but it was guarded by Verdain so we made our way around and away from the structure.

For a few weeks we evaded the search parties sent out to find us and we found a place to hide and come up with a plan to rescue the others. We came up with a plan and put it in motion, we allowed ourselves to be seen by one of the search parties who chased us through the rocky landscape, although it was extremely difficult at first, we eventually overpowered them and took their armour.

We were shocked when we removed the armour and saw nothing inside, still we had to go ahead and we put on the armour and headed back to the carrier. As we were returning we saw that the carrier ship had been destroyed and thought it was too late, thinking they may still be some of our people remaining in the structure we headed inside.

When we got inside it was quiet and we didn't see any Verdain or our people, we found a command console in one the rooms and that's when we discovered their plans, they were planning to take all their ships back with them and use the fade to wipe out everything.

Then the ground started shaking and a loud rumbling sound could be heard throughout the structure, we made our way towards the large ship rooms and that's when we saw it. The ship rooms had opened up in to one big room and at the end was the same energy field that they took the carrier through, we arrived to see almost all the ships were gone and the back end of what appeared to be a massive ship was disappearing through the field.

We knew we had to try and stop them and warn our people but we needed a ship, we saw a few remaining smaller ships so we took one and headed through the energy field. When we came out the other side we didn't see any other ships so we decided to head for home to warn the council and alert our people.

From our perspective, we were only gone a few months, I realise now that time must work differently in Intrius. All our families, our friends, they're all gone.

O'Neill opens his mouth ready to say something but he appears unsure of exactly what to say "I'm sorry." he eventually says. "We are your family, we will never allow that to happen again." says Lya then she turns to Chaya "What are the others doing?" asks Lya "They are refusing to interfere." replies Chaya "You must take me to them." says Lya.

As Chaya turns around, the briefing room doors open and everyone starts making their way out "So...we're done then?" asks O'Neill with his head darting about.

Chaya and Lya stop near the control consoles, they turn and face everyone. "Are you leaving again?" asks Raina, Chaya walks to the Novum "For a short while, but we will return I promise. We must gather our people." replies Chaya in a reassuring tone of voice "Ok" says Raina, Chaya turns back and walks over to Lya.

"Mr Woolsey, O'Neill. Where we are going we will not be able to help you until our return" says Lya "Where are you off too?" replies O'Neill "To convince the others to help." replies Chaya. Lya looks at the Novum and then back at O'Neill and Woolsey "Can we trust them in your care until our return?" asks Lya, then O'Neill looks over at the Novum and gives them a gentle smile "You bet, we'll take care of them." says O'Neill "They're safe with us." says Woolsey.

McKay walks around to the console behind Chaya and Lya "Excuse me, sorry, sorry." he says as he passes by, Chaya turns around and smiles at McKay "Dr McKay" she says "Erm..Y..Yes" replies McKay with a slightly worried look on his face. Chaya places her hand on the console McKay is standing at and instantly repairs all the damaged systems and power conduits, "There, Atlantis is repaired." says Chaya "Really?!" replies McKay who turns away from Chaya to check his laptop.

"We must go." says Lya, Chaya looks at Sheppard and they share a smile, then Lya and Chaya face each other and hold hands, then in a burst of light they're gone.


	12. Chapter 12

**SEHABO** (Pronounced _See-Ha-Bow_...as in bow and arrow)

The Verdain ship carrying the crystal from P3R-272 approaches the planet Sehabo, their original home world that was abandoned after the Verdain took the Novum.

Hundreds of small Verdain ships surround the planet like a swarm of bees protecting their hive, and on the surface sits a ship of impressive size, at least three times the size of any Ancient Aurora class battle ship.

Two of the Verdain ships surrounding the planet come to guide the approaching ship to the surface in a protective formation. The top of the large battle ship on the surface opens up, and the approaching ship carrying the crystal lowers itself inside as the guiding ships veer off to return to orbit, then the top of the battle ship closes.

Two Verdain walk through the corridors of the battle ship holding the heavy crystal as they walk, they come to a double door entrance guarded by two of their fellow Verdain, one of them looks at the two carrying the crystal then steps aside and presses a button on the wall which opens the doors allowing them to step inside.

As they enter the room the doors close behind them and ahead of them is a large machine which looks a lot like an Ancient long-range communication device, a large dome shaped base about 8 feet wide and 4 feet high. Directly in front of the device stands a Verdain who looks taller than the others and has a white circle of light on his chest.

The crystal carrying Verdain stop walking "Commander" says one of them, and the Verdain with the large circle on his chest approaches. He gives the crystal a once over "Excellent work" says the Commander, he steps aside and points to the device "Place it in to the Vincula" he orders, they walk forward and place the large blue crystal in a slot at the front of the device.

The crystal begins to glow with a low humming sound emanating from the device, the Commander turns and faces the corner of the room where a guard is standing "Bring them." he orders, the guard goes in to the room beside him and a few moments later a male Nox walks out followed by a male Ancient, both with their hands bound with black armoured restraints and being pushed forward towards the Commander by the guard behind them "Move it." says the guard.

When they reach the front of the device the guard grabs their shoulders and forces them down on to their knees then steps back.

"Look at you, the Nox were once a powerful race, now you are weak. The great Alterans who ascended to a higher plane of existence, you have all these God like abilities at your disposal and yet...you are brought to your knees, your powers rendered useless by a simple mineral." says the Commander while leaning down practically nose to nose with them both.

The Commander stands up straight "Hahahaha" he chuckles "You are pathetic." he says.

He signals a guard with a nod, indicating he wants them lifted to their feet and the guard obeys and forcibly lifts them up. The Commander paces up and down a little and then faces the Nox and the Ancient "Now. If you would be so kind." he says while slowly sweeping his hand towards the device.

They refuse and the Commander gets angry "Activate it!" he shouts, "No!" replies the Ancient "Do it, or I will kill you now." says the Commander. After a few moments of non compliance the Commander grows angry "Guard" he shouts, the guard swings the Ancient around and pulls his weapon and points it at the Ancients forehead, "No wait." shouts the Nox "We'll do it, but it won't do you any good." he says.

The guard lowers his weapon and forcibly positions the Ancient next to the Nox "What do you mean?" asks the Commander "It was designed so only the members of the alliance could activate it." explains the Nox. "Yes I know, that is why you are here. Now activate it." shouts the Commander "We...cant" shouts the Nox, the Commanders anger overwhelms him and he lunges forward and lifts the Nox by his collar off the ground "ACTIVATE IT!" he screams "You need a member from each race in the alliance in order to activate it, Nox, Alteran and a..." says the Nox "Furling!" interrupts the Commander.

The Commander quickly drops the Nox to the floor and hurries over to the Verdain that carried the crystal "Bring me a Furling." he orders, but they don't move as he expected "I gave you an order." he says. "Commander, during our initial attack we couldn't locate the Furlings, I think they're extinct Sir." replies one of the Verdain.

The Commander steps toward to the Verdain as if he was going to hit him, but he stops and turns to the Nox and Ancient "Where are the Furlings?" he asks in a furious tone of voice "Their race died out in this galaxy a long time ago." replies the Ancient "Their extinct." says the Nox.

Angry at hearing this he storms over to them and strikes them both with his arm sending them unconscious and laying on the floor.

The Commander goes over to the device and places his hands on it and hunches down breathing very heavily, then he raises his head up high and lets out a very loud menacing scream that can be heard throughout the entire ship "RAAAAAARRGGGGHHH!".


	13. Chapter 13

It's been a few hours since Chaya and Lya left Atlantis to try and convince the other Ancients to join the fight against the Verdain, and now that everyone has learned who the Novum and Verdain really are, they seem calmer and much more trusting of the Novum on board.

The Novum, along with Woolsey, O'Neill, Daniel and Carter are back sitting in the briefing room.

"How many Verdain ships are we talking about?" ask O'Neill, looking over at the Novum and rolling a pen between the thumbs and fingers of both hands.

"I don't know exactly, may be 6-7 hundred." replies Raina.

"And they're all like the one you stole?" asks O'Neill.

"Yes. We saw a really big one though before we came through the energy field, it was almost as wide as the field itself." replies Jomar.

"At least 50 times wider than the little ships." adds Raina.

O'Neill turns and looks at Woolsey who share a worried expression, Woolsey looks down at his tablet computer which he's been using to make notes of all the previous briefings.

"How big is the Verdain army?" asks Woolsey.

"There's about 7000 of them now." replies Raina in a saddened tone of voice.

"I see." replies Woolsey compassionately, then he lowers his head a little.

Daniel takes in a breath and looks across at O'Neill and then the Novum as he leans forward in his seat.

"So...you have no idea how the Verdain did any of this?" asks Daniel.

"No. All we know is they left Sehabo after they committed their terrible acts against our people, we didn't see or hear from them again until a few years after that." replies Raina.

"They must have been planning it for all that time, and there's no way they could have built all those ships after we were taken to Intrius. They were built long before we arrived." adds Alisana.

"Raina, you also said you saw them transforming the Novum into...orange energy?" questions Daniel.

"Yes. They went into a chamber and were turned into some type of energy, then the energy went into a suit of armour." replies Raina.

"So the energy controls the suit. Could it be living energy, like an Ancient, like Chaya?" asks Daniel.

"I'm not sure." replies Raina.

"When we overpowered the patrol and removed their armour, the energy was gone." adds Jomar.

"OK I know you said we can't kill these things, but if we remove their armour, that's it, they're gone...right?" asks O'Neill.

"I'm sorry we just don't know." replies Raina.

The room falls silent again for a moment, then Carter twirls to the side in her chair, gets up and starts walking towards the end of the table.

"Can you tell us anything about these?" asks Carter as she picks up a metal box from the table then walks over to the Novum and places it in front of them.

Carter opens the box revealing the two crystals cushioned snugly inside by protective foam, she turns the box around by the lid so the Novum can see them.

Raina reaches in a pulls out one of the crystals and has a good look, "I've never seen these." she says, Raina shows the crystal to Jomar who has also never seen them before.

"OK, it was worth a shot." says Carter.

"I know what this is." says Alisana as she gently takes the crystal from Raina's hand.

"You do?" asks Carter, with interest.

"This is a Nuntus." replies Alisana.

"A Nuntus." says Raina, sounding quite excited.

"OK, what's a Nuntus?" asks Carter.

Alisana shuffles her seat forward and closer to Carter, who is leaning over the table.

"The alliance of races had a council, a member from each race chosen to represent their people. Each member of the council was given a Nuntus, it's used for lots of things, accessing the council chambers, allocating resources to various worlds and casting votes on what is best for our people." explains Alisana.

"A government?" asks Woolsey.

"Yes. Like our colony on Sehabo, the council members had to vote on whether it should go ahead or not." replies Alisana.

Carter bits the side of her lip and has a slightly disappointed look on her face.

"Is something wrong?" asks Jomar.

"No, no. Well I was just hoping it would be something more than that." replies Carter.

"Oh but it is." replies Alisana, with a smile on her face.

Alisana looks excited and get up from her seat and makes her way around the table to Carter, she holds out the crystal in front of her.

"With this, we can access the Yaculum." says Alisana.

"No way. The Yaculum." says Raina, who also gets excited.

"What's the Yaculum?" shouts O'Neill from the back of the room.

"The archive, it's where our people stored all of our research, knowledge and prototype technology. Pretty much everything that was created and shared by the alliance is stored there." replies Alisana.

O'Neill, Woolsey, Daniel and Carter look at each other for a moment, then O'Neill, Woolsey and Daniel get out of their seat and walk over to Carter and the Novum.

"Technology you say?." asks O'Neill

"Yes." replies Alisana.

Now everyone is excited and smiling at each other.

"You wouldn't by any chance know where the...Yaculum..is..would you?" asks Carter, cautiously.

"Are you kidding, I've been trying to get in to that place since I could walk." replies Alisana.

"So that's a yes then?" asks O'Neill.

"Yes. I know exactly where it is." replies Alisana.

"Oh, McKaaaaaay" shouts Carter as she leaves the briefing room followed closely behind by the others.

Zelenka and McKay have been trying to figure out what's happening to Medrona, but haven't had much luck and the planet is now only just visible to the eye. McKay is sat at a console typing on his laptop when Carter rushes over and pats him on the shoulder.

"Hey, McKay. I found out what one of the crystals is for." says Carter.

"Oh yeah, good for you." says McKay who didn't even look at Carter and just continues typing on his laptop.

"Don't you want to know what it's for?" asks Carter.

"What?" asks McKay in a low and uncaring tone of voice.

"Oh nothing really, it's just a key to possibly all the Ancients technology." replies Carter.

"That's great." says McKay, again in a low and uncaring tone of voice.

Carter smiles and walks off, then McKay realises what she just said and springs to his feet.

"What did you say?" shouts McKay.

"Nothing." replies Carter.

McKay walks over to Carter with a childish smile and waving his finger.

"No, no, no, no, no, no. You said Ancient technology. Does that contain information on Ancient technology?. Because if it does then I should probably take a look at that." asks McKay, while pointing at the crystal.

"Not information, McKay. Actual technology, and not just the Ancients technology but the Nox and the Furlings too." replies Carter.

"Are you serious." replies McKay with a stunned fish like expression on his fish.

"Alright, Alisana where is this..Yack..thing?" asks O'Neill.

"The Yaculum is on a planet called Lemea."

Carter hears O'Neill ask Alisana where it is, so Carter walks over to them and points to the gate console.

"Do you know the gate address?" asks Carter.

"There's no Stargate on Lemea." replies Alisana.

"Here, you can show us on this." says Carter as she moves across to the navigation console.

Carter brings up a map of all the planets in the Milky Way on the display.

"OK this is where we are now, this is Earth." explains Carter while pointing our locations on the display.

"There." says Alisana as she points out a planet to Carter on the display.

"There, are you sure?" asks Carter.

"Yes, that's Lemea." replies Alisana.

"What is it Carter?" asks O'Neill.

Carter stands up straight and faces O'Neill. "Sir, that's P3X-562, the planet with the crystalline entities." explains Carter.

"Help me out here Carter." says O'Neill who looks puzzled.

"It's the planet with the blue crystals, the ones that took your place when it thought it injured you, and it took the form of your son sir." replies Carter, delicately.

"Ah." replies O'Neill.

Carter turns back to Alisana who originally said the planet had no Stargate "Alisana, this planet does have a Stargate. Are you sure this is the one?" says Carter.

"Possitive. It didn't have a Stargate the last time I was there." replies Alisana.

"Well let's not forget you've been gone for a long time, they could have put a gate there sometime after." says Daniel as he steps in to the conversation.

Suddenly a beeping alarm goes off on McKay's laptop and he rushes over to it.

"Oh no." says McKay.

"What is it?" asks Carter.

"Medronas gone." replies McKay.

Everyone rushes over to the external display that was showing Medrona, when they get there they see what just looks like a plume of space dust where Medrona use to be. A sense of loss fills Atlantis and even though they knew they could do nothing about it, they also know they have to work fast if they want to stop this from happening to any other world.


	14. Chapter 14

"What do you want to do Sir?" asks Carter.

O'Neill turns around and slowly walks over to the dialling console and lightly sits on it with his arms folded.

"Sir?" asks Carter.

O'Neill looks at the Novum, "Your ship, is it fully operational?" he asks.

"Yes." replies Alisana.

After thinking for a minute, O'Neill gets up and walks back over to everyone.

"Alright. Woolsey, I want you to take Atlantis and go to the alpha site and wait for us there." orders O'Neill.

"Yes, General." replies Woolsey.

"Myself and SG-1 will transport over to the Alliance and take the Verdain ship to Lemea." says O'Neill.

"Wouldn't it be faster to just gate there?" asks Daniel.

"Yes, Daniel. But we don't know how far it is from the gate, and if the Verdain show up we'll want to be able to get the heck out of there as quickly as possible." replies O'Neill.

"Good point." says Daniel.

O'Neill walks over to Sheppard, Ronon and Teyla.

"The kids will stay here on Atlantis with you. Take care of them." says O'Neill.

"Understood, Sir." says Sheppard.

"We got it covered" says Ronon.

"No harm will come to them, you have my word." says Teyla.

And with that, they head to the clear area at the top of the stairs ready to be beamed on to the Alliance.

* * *

"Wait." shouts Alisana, "I'm coming with you." she says.

"No you're not, you're staying on Atlantis and heading back to Earth with the others." says O'Neill.

"Fine, then you're not taking my ship." replies Alisana, firmly.

O'Neill walks up to her, "Your ship?, you stole it from the Verdain." he says.

"Yes I stole it, now it's mine." says Alisana.

"You're not coming." says O'Neill in a firm tone of voice.

"Yes I am." replies Alisana.

"No, you're not. I'm not arguing any more. That's it." replies O'Neill, holding up his hands signalling he's had enough and he moves back to the group and gets on his radio.

"Swanson, we're..." says O'Neill

"How are you going to find the Yaculum when you get there?, do you even know how to use the Nuntus?" says Alisana with a stubborn smile on her file.

O'Neill goes quiet for a moment. "Carter?" he says.

"She has us on that one sir." replies Carter, while gritting her teeth a little.

O'Neill rubs his forehead in frustration and steps forward to Alisana, he takes a deep breath and then kind of wimps out.

"OK, alright, fine. You can come..BUT..you stay with the group, and when I tell you to do something you do it..are we clear." says O'Neill in a very firm tone.

"Yes, thank you, thank you." replies Alisana while jumping a couple of times with joy and then giving O'Neill a quick hug. Alisana then runs over and joins the group.

"And no touching, or talking." says O'Neill who also makes his way back to the group.

"Swanson this is O'Neill, we're ready to beam." says O'Neill over the radio.

* * *

SG-1, O'Neill and Alisana are now safely on board the Alliance and suited up with all the weapons they can carry, O'Neill even has his favourite cap on. They start walking through the corridors, joined by Col Swanson they head towards the docking bay where Alisana's ship is located.

"Swanson, when we set off I want you to get back to Earth with Atlantis. When you get there I need you to get to the SGC and start contacting all of our allies, brief them on the Verdain situation and try and round up as many of their ships as you can, then tell them all to meet at the alpha site." orders O'Neill.

"Yes Sir. What are we up against?" asks Swanson.

"We're looking at an army of about 7000 with at least 600 ships in their fleet, we need to be ready when they decide to make a move." explains O'Neill.

"Understood Sir." replies Swanson as she stops in the corridor when they reach the docking bay, she turns around and heads back to the bridge.

They enter the docking bay and see the Verdain ship, it's wedge shaped and about 3 times the size of a Wraith dart and it's hull is completely black. The Verdain ship is hovering about 2 feet off the ground and a ramp leads up to a narrow entrance on the side of the ship, they go up the ramp and in to the ship.

"Not much room in here is there." says Vala.

"I don't think the Verdain had comfort in mind when they designed this thing." replies Mitchell.

"Erm..Alisana, there's only 3 seats." says Carter.

"Oh, here you go." says Alisana as she presses a button that makes 2 bench like blocks emerge from either side of the ship forming seats.

"OK, buckle up kids." says O'Neill as he and Carter sit down just behind Alisana, who is in the pilot seat.

There are no protruding controls on the dash of the Verdain ship, no buttons or handles, all the controls appear to be projected some how on to the dash. Alisana starts the ships engines and slowly glides the ship out of the bay and away from the Alliance.

"General, good luck. We'll head back to Earth." says Swanson over the radio.

"Copy that, see you soon." replies O'Neill, "OK Alisana, let's go find something." he says.

"OK here we go, hold on." says Alisana, she pushes a button on the dash and they enter hyperspace.

Vala is sitting at the opposite side on the ship to Daniel, she leans forward "Daniel" she whispers.

"What?" asks Daniel as he leans forward.

"What do you think we'll find when we get there?" asks Vala

"I've no idea. Why?" replies Daniel.

"It's just so exciting, all that history, technology, knowledge...treasure." says Vala with a really big smile.

"Oh, I see. You're just hoping we find something valuable down there that you can take and keep for yourself. Whatever we find down there you're not stealing any of it." replies a frustrated Daniel.

"We'll see." says Vala, and she leans back sat up in her seat.

While they head towards P3X-562 in the Verdain ship piloted by Alisana, back on Sehabo, the Commander grows even more angry.


	15. Chapter 15

The Commander steps away from the dome shaped device and storms passed two Verdain, pushing them out of the way as he walks passed on his way out of the room. He leaves the room and swiftly walks down a long corridor, every now and then he passes Verdain who are guarding other doorways that line the corridor.

He eventually comes to a single unguarded door, the door is different to the the rest as it contains a hand shaped hole in the middle. The Commander places his hand in to the hole which verifies his identity and the door opens, the corridor immediately outside the door glows with a shimmering white light as he steps inside the room and the door closes behind him.

A short time later he emerges from the room, and with a sense of urgency he runs back to the room he was in with the dome shaped device. The doors slide open and he steps inside and walks up to the two Verdain that carried the crystal.

"You two." says the Commander, pointing at them.

"Find me the Novum that escaped from Intrius." orders the Commander.

"Yes Sir." says both of the Verdain and they head for the doors.

"WAIT" shouts the Commander, "When you find them, report their location back to me." he says.

The Verdain confirm by bowing their heads and then rush out of the room heading back towards their ship. The ships leaves the top of the battle ship and heads for orbit above Sehabo, once there they are joined by two other ships and together they head off in search of the Novum.

* * *

Meanwhile Atlantis is back at Earth awaiting O'Neill's return, the crew are going about their usual duties, not quite knowing what they should be doing.

"Dr McKay.. Zelenka. Can I see you in my office please." says Woolsey, stood at his office door.

When McKay and Zelenka arrive in Woolsey's office, Woolsey standing behind his desk holding a computer tablet and reading McKay and Zelenka's hyperdrive Jumper research.

"I've been going over your research into fitting Jumpers with hyperdrives. To be honest I don't understand any of this, how close are you to making this a reality?" asks Woolsey.

"Pretty close." replies McKay.

"Err..I don't think we're that close." says Zelenka.

"We're pretty close." says McKay, while giving Zelenka a disagreeable expression.

"No, we're not, Rodney." replies Zelenka.

Woolsey puts down the tablet on to his desk "Please. Don't start this again." he says firmly.

"What do you need to do to get this to work?" ask Woolsey.

"Getting it to work isn't the problem. We can make the Jumpers capable of travelling in hyperspace, the problem is it uses too much power." replies McKay.

"Basically it's a one time thing, Jumper's only have enough power to use the hyperdrive once." adds Zelenka.

"We haven't figured out how to get around that little problem yet." adds McKay.

"I see." says Woolsey, he walks around the table and slowly towards his office door, he looks out in to the control room while deep in thought, he then turns to face McKay and Zelenka.

"I want you to make all the Jumpers hyperspace ready." says Woolsey.

"What?, we just told you we have't figured it out yet." replies McKay.

"Yes, and I understand that. But the Jumpers are small and manoeuvrable, if we end up in another fight with the Verdain we're going to need the Jumpers to mount a defence." says Woolsey.

"Yeah, but.." replies McKay.

Woolsey steps forward to McKay, "One Verdain ship almost destroyed Atlantis, if we come under attack again we may need to make a hasty retreat and it's very likely we won't have time to wait for any Jumpers engaged in battle to return to Atlantis." explains Woolsey.

"But if they had hyperdrives, even if it does only give them one jump, then at least they'll have a chance at getting away." adds Woolsey.

"Right." says Zelenka.

"Can you do it?" asks Woolsey.

"We'll need some help." replies McKay.

"Take whoever and whatever you need to make this happen." says Woolsey, "Get to it." he says.

McKay and Zelenka leave Woolsey's office and head up the stairs going directly to the Jumper bay, Woolsey watches them head away with a hopeful yet worried expression on his face.

* * *

Raina and Jomar are inside the briefing room examining the other crystal, Woolsey sees them and goes in to the briefing room, he coughs to alert them to his presence.

"Oh, hello Mr Woolsey." says Raina.

"Hello." replies Woolsey, who then walks over to them, "What are you up to?" he asks.

"Well everyone seems to be doing something, so we thought we'd try and make ourselves useful by taking another look at this crystal, see if we can figure out what it's for." replies Raina.

"I see. Any thoughts on it yet?" asks Woolsey.

Raina puffs her cheeks and then lets out a breath, "Nothing yet." she says.

"We're still working on it." adds Jomar.

"We appreciate the help, please, continue and let me know if you find something." says Woolsey, he gives them a friendly smile and leaves the briefing room. Raina and Jomar take a look at each other "Back to it then" says Jomar, "Ok" says Raina while taking in a deep breath.


	16. Chapter 16

**Lemea** (pronounced Lee-Mayor)

Alisana has been piloting the Verdain ship through hyperspace for almost an hour, and they are 10 minutes away from Lemea (P3X-562). O'Neill joined Mitchell, Vala, Teal'c and Daniel at the back of the ship and they've been talking amongst themselves, Carter has been sitting next to Alisana the whole journey and looking around the Verdain ship with great interest.

"So how do the controls work?" asks Carter, eager to find out all she can about the ship.

"I don't know for sure, but I believe the ship uses a type of particle manipulation." says Alisana.

"What does that mean?" asks Carter.

"Well, the ship is essentially one complete block of metal, contained within the metal is a type of particle. The particle is manipulated to provide thrust, weapons and the controls you see here." explains Alisana.

"Ok..." says Carter as she shuffles closer to Alisana, "So you're saying the ship has no internal systems, no engine or weapon systems...basically the systems have no moving parts?" asks Carter.

"That's right." replies Alisana.

"So the particle you say is running throughout the ship, do you know what it is?" asks Carter.

"I have no idea, sorry." replies Alisana with a tiny laugh.

"No, don't be silly. This is very advanced technology, it's obviously way beyond our current understanding." says Carter.

* * *

Then an beeping sound is heard through the ship, indicating they have reached their destination.

"We're here." shouts Alisana.

O'Neill, Mitchell, Vala, Teal'c and Daniel stand up and look out of the front of the ship as they approach Lemea. Alisana slows down the ship as they approach the planet, O'Neill moves up to Alisana and leans with one hand on the dash and the other on the back of Alisana's chair.

"Look's quiet." says O'Neill.

Alisana looks up at O'Neill, "I'm not detecting any Verdain ships in the area, I think we're ok." she says.

"Alright, take us down." says O'Neill.

* * *

Alisana carefully guides the ship through Lemeas atmosphere and while hovering about 50 feet above the surface she heads toward the Yaculum. The planet is completely covered in bright glistening yellow sand, as they continue along the landscape they see small clusters of blue crystals, the crystalline entities.

After several minutes Alisana begins pressing on the dash with a slight sense of panic on her face.

O'Neill notices, "Everything ok?" he asks.

"I...I don't understand." replies Alisana, "The entrance should be right here." she says.

"Are you sure we're in the right place?" asks O'Neill.

Alisana presses more buttons on the dash which displays some type of map, "Yes, I'm sure this is the place." she says.

O'Neill turns and looks out of the window again, "I don't see anything." he says.

"It was here I swear...I swear it was here." says Alisana in a shaky voice.

"Hey, hey. We believe you, It's ok." says Carter.

"Is there a chance they could have moved it." says Daniel.

"I don't believe so." replies Alisana.

"I'll tell you what, take this thing down and we'll go take a look on foot." says O'Neill.

* * *

Alisana nods her head and proceeds to land the ship on the surface. The narrow door opens and the ramp emerges, everyone gets out and groups together about 10 feet from the ship.

O'Neill puts on his cap, "What exactly are we looking for?." he says.

"A large stone column." replies Alisana.

"When you say large?" asks Mitchell.

"About 30 feet high." replies Alisana.

"You know, if this planet suffers sand storms, it could have been buried." explains Carter.

"OK, everyone pick a direction and take a look around. Alisana, stay with me." says O'Neill.

Every heads off in opposite directions to try find the column, tall hills surround them but they manage to make their way up them. Alisana and O'Neill are having a look around together but not really saying anything.

"You believe me don't you, that it was here?" asks Alisana.

"Yes I do." replies O'Neill.

"So is General you're name?" asks Alisana.

"No, it's my rank. My name is Jack." replies O'Neill.

"Oh. So you're the leader of your people?" asks Alisana.

O'Neill stops for a moment and looks at Alisana, "Yes." he says, then he keeps walking.

"OK, Jack." says Alisana.

"It's General O'Neill to you." says O'Neill.

"Sorry." says Alisana, sarcastically.

Mitchell reaches the top of a hill, slightly exhausted and has a look around but sees nothing but more sand, he sees Teal'c standing at the top of another hill.

"Anything Teal'c?" asks Mitchell on the radio.

"Nothing." replies Teal'c.

As Carter reaches the top of a hill she hears the radio conversation, "I've got nothing either." she says. They all continue to look around for a while but all they see is yellow sand, O'Neill gets on the radio and orders everyone to meet back at the ship.

"There's nothing here, let's head back." says O'Neill.

"Sorry. I was so sure it was here." says Alisana.

"Don't worry about it, we gave it a shot." says O'Neill as he touches Alisana on the shoulder, "Let's go." he says.

"Wait a second, Sir." says Carter, who spots a crystalline entity protruding from a sand dune, "I have an idea." she says.

* * *

Carter and the group walk over to the crystalline entity.

"Carter?" asks O'Neill.

"We know they can communicate with us sir, if we can talk to it may be we can find out what happened to the Yaculum." explains Carter.

"It's worth a try Jack." says Daniel.

"Yeah, ok. Just don't get too close." says O'Neill.

Carter moves closer to the crystalline entity and kneels down in front of it, she looks in to the reflective crystal, "Hello." she says softly. Nothing happens but she doesn't give up, "We're from Earth, we just want to talk to you." says Carter.

The crystal appears to come to life and mimics Carter's face, Carter turns and looks at the others with a smile, turning back to the crystal she moves in a little bit closer.

"Hello" says Carter.

"Hello" replies the crystalline entity.

"We're looking for something called the Yaculum. Can you help us?" says Carter.

"Yaculum." says the crystalline entity.

"Yes. A stone column about 30 feet high." says Carter.

The image of Carters face on the crystal disappears and the crystalline entity becomes lifeless.

"Can you help us?" says Carter, "Hello" she says.

"Not very friendly are they." says Vala.

Alisana has been watching and listening from the back of the group, she moves forward and kneels beside Carter, she leans forward to the crystal.

"Please, it's very important that we find the Yaculum." says Alisana.

"Forget it, it's not talking." says O'Neill.

"We have a Nuntus." says Alisana as she holds out the Nuntus crystal in front of her.

The crystalline entity springs to life once again and mimics Alisana's face this time, "Please." says Alisana. The face smiles at her and then looks beyond them, they all turn around and see the yellow sand slowly blowing off the hills.

The sand gathers more and more, then begins spinning like a tornado but it looks more like a tube. Soon the tube shrinks and as the sand clears, a stone column appears before them, it is what they were looking for.

"Wohw, that was awesome." says Mitchell.

"Awesome, Indeed." says Teal'c.

"Oh yeah." says O'Neill.

Carter and Alisana look at each other with happiness then look at the crystalline entity, "Thank you." says Carter, then the crystalline entity becomes lifeless once again. Alisana jumps to her feet, "Come on." she shouts as she runs off in the direction of the stone column.

* * *

"Hey, wait for us." shouts O'Neill, "Let's go." he says.

They arrive at the stone column which is sitting on top of a large circular platform with a small pedestal at the front of the column, Alisana runs right up to the column, "This is it, come on." she shouts.

"J..Just..hold on a second will ya." says O'Neill, with his hands on his knees slouched over, fighting to catch his breath.

As they all gather around the stone column they all share a feeling of wonder and excitement at what lays ahead of them.

"Is this the Yaculum?." asks Daniel.

"No, this is the entrance to the Yaculum." replies Alisana.

"How do we get in?." asks Carter.

"By placing the Nuntus on the pedestal." says Alisana.

"So what are you waiting for?" asks O'Neill.

"I've wanted to see this my whole life, now I finally will." says Alisana, smiling.

Alisana takes a deep breath and steps to the pedestal, after hesitating for a brief moment she slowly and gently places the Nuntus on to the pedestal and steps back. The Nuntus glows and starts hovering and spinning in the air about 2 feet above the pedestal, then a single transporter ring rises from the circular platform and transports the group away.


	17. Chapter 17

At the SGC on Earth, Col Swanson has been hard at work contacting as many worlds as she can and asking their allies to round up as many ships as they can and meet at the alpha site. Swanson received word from their allies that ships have been dispatched and are on there way, and as word spreads she hopes more will join.

With most of Earth's allies contacted and nothing more she can do at the SGC, Swanson decides to return to the Alliance and join them at the alpha site, she transports aboard and takes her seat in the captains chair, she opens communications with Atlantis.

"Mr Woolsey, our allies are gathering at the alpha site. We should meet them there." says Swanson.

"Is it wise to leave Earth right now?" asks Woolsey.

"The Daedalus and Odyssey have been recalled to Earth, they will remain here upon their return." replies Swanson.

"I see, then we'll proceed to the alpha site." replies Woolsey.

"See you there." says Swanson, and she gives the order to go.

Woolsey opens Atlantis' com system, "Dr McKay, what's the status on the Jumper hyperdrives?" he asks.

"Almost done, give us a few more hours." replies McKay.

"That's good to hear. Keep working." says Woolsey.

Woolsey then gives the order to bring Atlantis' stardrive online and head for the alpha site.

* * *

Unknown to the crew of the Alliance and Atlantis, a Verdain ship has been sitting close by and scanning them. As Atlantis glides passed them on it's way to the alpha site, the Verdain ship detects the presence of the Novum and informs the Commander.

"Commander, the Novum have been located." says the pilot of the Verdain ship.

"Where?" asks the Commander.

"They're still on board the Alteran vessel." says the pilot.

The Commander is now standing on the bridge of his great battle ship, the bridge is a large open room, in front is a large window and in front of that is a semi circle shaped row of consoles with several Verdain sitting at them. The Commanders chair is situated behind them, and at both sides of the bridge are more consoles with large viewing screens with 3 Verdain at each side manning them, one of the screens shows Medrona and several other planets that the Verdain have already destroyed with the Fade.

The Commander goes over to the left side of the bridge and stands at a console, as he interacts with the interface it brings up a display of the scans collected by the Verdain ship he is communicating with.

"These scans only show the presence of two Novum, where is the other?" asks the Commander.

"We do not know Commander. The Alteran vessel is leaving the system, should we stop them?" replies the pilot.

"No. Follow them...let's see what they're up to." replies the Commander.

"Understood." says the pilot and he follows Atlantis.

* * *

Meanwhile three Ha'tak vessels under the control of the free Jaffa are passing through a system close to Lemea on their way to the alpha site. They detect a strange energy signature ahead of them so drop out of hyperspace to investigate, as they exit hyperspace and slow down they see a Verdain ship firing a circular device surrounded by energy at a nearby planet.

The Ha'tak ship at the center of the group fires two shots at the device in an attempt to destroy it, but their actions do nothing, only nudging the device very slightly off it's course it continues hurtling towards the planet.

They attempt to communicate with the Verdain ship, "Stop what you're doing or we will destroy you." says Kahpa, commander of the lead Ha'tak vessel.

Suddenly the Ha'tak vessels are attacked from behind, two more Verdain ships went undetected when the Jaffa exited hyperspace and they're now firing on the Ha'tak.

"Fire, fire." shouts Kahpa as his ship shakes from the impact of the Verdain weapons.

The Verdain ship in front of them turns in situ towards the Ha'tak vessels and then comes at them head on really fast while firing it's weapons, Kahpa and his men on the bridge watch as it gets really close and then it flies over them our of view..and they all disappear from sensors.

All three Ha'tak vessels were badly damaged in the attack and are unable to enter hyperspace, they sense it isn't over yet and so manoeuvre their ships in to a tight defensive formation.

Then their sensors start bleeping as they detect the Verdain ships approaching once again, each Verdain ship is approaching from a different angle towards the Ha'tak in a type of pincer movement. Each Ha'tak vessel opens fire on an approaching Verdain ship but their armour just absorbs the blasts and the Verdain keep moving forward.

As the Verdain get closer they open fire on the Ha'tak and then break away and begin circling them like vultures and unleashing punishing amounts of fire sideways at the Ha'tak vessels.

On Sehabo on the bridge of the great Verdain battle ship, the Commander is informed of the battle between the Ha'tak and Verdain ships.

"Commander, three of our ships are engaged in battle." says a Verdain sitting at the main bridge controls.

"Show me." orders the Commander as he stands up from his chair and the battle is displayed on the main display at the front of the battle ship.

The battle is displayed on screen in front of him and he sees the Ha'tak vessels bunched together firing back at the Verdain ships that are circling them, the whole battle looks like a catherine wheel firework with all the weapons fire being exchanged.

"Hahaha...yes...destroy them." says the Commander, clearly enjoying what he sees.

The Jaffa are quickly losing this fight and they know it. As the fight goes on, all three Ha'tak vessels sustain heavy damage and one by one they lose their weapons systems and are rendered defenceless, but the Verdain don't care and mercilessly continue firing at them.

Kahpa sends a communication to the alpha site and then opens communications with the other Ha'tak vessels, Mardel and Hep'mar the commanders of the other Ha'tak vessels appear on the communication screen.

"My brothers, the fight is lost." says Kahpa

"We die with honour." says Hep'mar.

"With honour." says Mardel.

As they all give a show of respect, the Verdain unleash one last attack on their ships and within seconds all three Ha'tak starts exploding from within. Kahpa's ship is the first to explode and the resulting explosion causes a chain reaction with causes the others to explode.

Unfortunately for the attacking Verdain their over confidence would prove fatal, as the Ha'tak vessels explode the Verdain don't have enough time to get clear of the explosion and as a result, two of them are caught in the blast wave and instantly destroyed, the other one is skimmed by the blast wave which doesn't destroy it but is powerful enough to send it hurtling uncontrollably through space.

"No." screams the Commander, who was hoping for an easy victory.

The Commander sits back down angrily in his chair holding his head in his hand, on the viewer we see footage being transmitted from the font of the Verdain ship that was sent hurtling through space and it's heading towards a planet, it plummets through the planets atmosphere like a fire ball and hits the surface, it scrapes along the surface for several miles leaving a large crater in its wake and then comes to a stop.

"Shall we recover the ship, Commander?" asks a Verdain sat at the bridge controls.

"No...Leave it. Turn it off." replies the Commander, indicating to the display.

The Commander glances at the display for a split second and then leaps from his chair.

"Wait!" shouts the Commander, "What is that?" he asks.

He notices something in the background of the display, "Zoom in on that" he orders. The image zooms in and displayed before him he sees a stone column and another Verdain ship a few meters away on the surface.

"Lemea." says the Commander in a low tone of voice.

He turns and sits back in his chair, "Send every ship we have in that area to that planet now." he orders.


	18. Chapter 18

**THE YACULUM** (pronounced Yack-You-Lum)

A transporter ring appears from the ceiling of a wide hallway, leaving a tube of light behind as it disappears into the floor below. As the light fades away, SG-1, O'Neill and Alisana appear and stand in the hallway which slowly goes dark making it impossible to see anything or anyone.

Mitchell turns on his torch which unknown to him is pointed directly at O'Neill's face.

"Hey.." shouts O'Neill as he holds his hand near his eyes while being blinded by the light from Mitchell's torch, "Watch where you point that thing." he says.

"Sorry, Sir." says Mitchell who quickly turns the torch away.

"God." mutters O'Neill.

Carter, Daniel, Vala and O'Neill get out their torches and turn them on, "Teal'c?" says O'Neill.

"O'Neill" replies Teal'c.

"Where are you?" asks O'Neill while moving his torch around looking for him.

"Here O'Neill." says Teal'c who emerges from the darkness behind them.

"Oh, there you are, stay close." says O'Neill.

They all look around using the light from their torches and it illuminates the hallway a little but not enough to see far ahead of them. They can see Alisana stood in front of them and feeling around the wall in the darkness.

"Alisana" says Carter as she approaches her, "What are you doing?" she asks.

"Looking for this." replies Alisana.

Alisana pulls a lever on the wall which makes a loud noise like two stones grinding together, then the hallway starts lighting up. Light appears on the ceiling, in strips and about 5 feet apart they come on in sequence and flood the hallway with light. Everyone stands watching the lights come on and are in awe at the size of the hallway, the lights get smaller and smaller as they continue on in to the distance.

"Wow..how big is this place?" asks Carter.

"Big. Come on let's go." says Alisana with a smile on her face and she makes like she's going to run off down the hallway.

"Aht, aht" shouts O'Neill as he lunges forward and grabs Alisana's jacket, "No you don't." he says.

"What?" asks Alisana.

"What did I say about staying with the group." says O'Neill.

Alisana lets out a breath, "Alright, ok." she says.

"Teal'c, Mitchell. Take point." orders O'Neill.

With Teal'c and Mitchell walking in front of the group, they all head off down the vast hallway. The walls are brown and stone with nothing on them, just the occasional crack but it seems sturdy and structurally in tact. Daniel is at the back of the group with Vala and he walks forward and stands next to O'Neill and Alisana.

"Hey, err...I have a question." says Daniel, "What exactly are we looking for?" he asks.

"What do you mean?" asks O'Neill.

"Well when we found out about this place we couldn't wait to get here, but what are we here for exactly?" replies Daniel.

O'Neill stops walking and looks at Daniel for a moment, "That's a good question." he says. The rest of the group sees that the others have stopped so they turn around and walk over.

Then O'Neill turns to Alisana, "What are we looking for?" he asks.

"I don't know." replies Alisana, shrugging her shoulders.

"You don't know?!" says a shocked O'Neill, "Then what may I ask are we doing here?" he asks.

"No, I mean I don't know exactly what we're looking for but there has to be something here that can help us fight the Verdain." explains Alisana in a reassuring tone.

"OK, let's keep going." says O'Neill as he looks over to Teal'c and Mitchell.

They continue walking down the vast hallway and come to a large door with some writing in the middle of it, Daniel approaches the door and takes a look.

"What's it say?" asks Vala from the back.

"I have no idea. Alisana?" says Daniel.

"It says 'Knowledge'." says Alisana, she pushes a protruding button on the door and the door slides away side ways in to the wall.

As the door opens, tiny streams of dust fall around the frame, Mitchell peers in to the dark room and as he places his foot beyond the opening, a large central light on the ceiling illuminates the whole room.

They all enter the room and look around. The room is about 500 feet across and 500 feet wide, the walls are covered with stacks of books of various size, shape and made from all manor of different materials, some are paper, some are stone and others are metallic looking.

Covering the floor of the room are hundreds of statues, monuments, and stone slabs engraved with text of many languages, at the very back of the room is a long stone table stretching the entire width of the room and laying on top are more stone slabs and and ancient repository of knowledge hangs on the wall above it.

Daniel immediately walks over to the stacks of books that line the walls and picks one up, he blows the dust off its cover and opens it. After taking a quick look at the book he places it back and opens a few more...

"This is amazing." says Daniel.

"Did you find something?" asks Vala as she makes her way over to Daniel.

Daniel holds a book in his hands and walks over to O'Neill, and walking straight passed Vala who was on her way to Daniel. Vala shrugs her shoulders, "I'm invisible." she mutters as Daniel goes passed her.

"This really is everything they knew. All their knowledge of plants, medicine, technology, space...it's unbelievable, it's going to take me decades to get through all this." says Daniel, who is clearly ecstatic at the discovery.

"Really?" says O'Neill.

"Yes. Thank you for bringing us here." replies Daniel and he looks and smile at Alisana.

"Daniel, Daniel." says O'Neill trying to calm down Daniel's excitement, "This is all..great. Unfortunately it doesn't help us right now, we need to keep moving." he says.

"Right." replies Daniel, and he places the book back where he found it.

Everyone makes their way out of the room and back in to the hallway, as Daniel is on his way out he notices a small book with Ancient text on it, the text reads 'Lantis', he picks it up and places it in his backpack as he walks out to join the group.

"Ready?" says O'Neill to Daniel, "Let's go." he says.

Once again they all set off and continue down the hallway, Vala walks next to Alisana.

"Hi, I'm Vala." says Vala.

"Hello." replies Alisana.

"Just between you and me, girl to girl. Where's the treasure?" asks Vala.

"Treasure?" replies Alisana while giving Vala a curious look.

"You know, trinkets, gems, shiny precious metals. Your people did have those right?" replies Vala.

"Errrm.." mutters Alisana, before she can say any more, Daniel grabs Vala's arm and pulls her to the back of the group.

"What are you doing?, let go of me." says Vala, not happy at being manhandled.

"Will you stop, we're not here to make you rich." says Daniel.

"Can't blame a girl for trying." replies Vala

As before, they come to another door in the hallway with something written on, "Porta" says Alisana reading the text, and she once again pushes a protruding button to open the door and it slides open.

Light illuminates the room which is the same size as the room of knowledge, as the group step through the door way they see a row of what look like Ancient consoles, and behind them they see a large circular ring suspended from the ceiling, at each side of the consoles they see a Destiny model Stargate propped up against the back wall.

"Is that a Stargate." asks Carter as she points to the circular object near the consoles and starts walking towards it.

"Yes." replies Alisana.

"That's a Stargate, It's huge." says O'Neill.

"Indeed." adds Teal'c.

The huge Stargate is circular like the others, but it contains no symbols and has only a single chevron type clamp at the top. The clamp is very wide and encompasses around two thirds of the top of the Stargate, within the clamp in a semi circle pattern are ten individual round crystals.

Looking around the room they see other unrecognisable devices and on one side of the wall is a big map of all the planets in the Milky Way and star constellations, on the other wall is map of a galaxy none of them recognise, the map is incomplete.

"This is a prototype of a Stargate, it was designed by the great scientist Amelius, his last great invention before he disappeared." explains Alisana.

"Disappeared?" asks a curious Daniel.

"It's said that when Amelius was working on the Stargate, it activated for a brief moment, but this was impossible because it was the only Stargate in existence at the time. As he was going through the data and readings taken when the Stargate activated, he discovered a signal that confused even him, he could not explain what it was or where it came from but he devoted all of his time and efforts after that to unlocking its secrets. One day he went to his lab and he never came out, he just disappeared and no one could explain where he went." says Alisana.

"This is the gate from his lab?" asks Carter.

"Yes, it was placed here after he disappeared but the Alterans used his research and continued his work to build the Stargate network in his honour." replies Alisana, "He was a great man, I wish I had met him." she says.

While the others have a look around the room and Carter inspects the Stargate consoles, Alisana is over at the wall looking at the map of the Milky Way, she suddenly remembers something.

"That's it!." shouts Alisana as she spins around to look at everyone.

"What?" asks O'Neill.

"That's what we need." says Alisana to herself while looking down and thinking.

"What?" asks O'Neill.

Alisana starts running out of the room, she turns before she gets to the door, "Come on." she shouts and waves them to follow her.

"What?!" shouts O'Neill, "Oh for crying out loud." he moans as he follows the others out.


	19. Chapter 19

Everyone is running through the hallway following Alisana, they pass several closed doors and at each door they pass, Alisana looks at the writing and quickly moves on to the next. Alisana suddenly stops at a door and points to the writing in the middle of it, "This is it, this is the one." she says.

"Wait...wait." shouts O'Neill as everyone gathers at the door, "Why all the running." he says and once again out of breath.

Alisana lets out a little giggle, "Sorry Jack. What we need is in here." she says.

She pushes the button, opens the door and they step in to the room.

The contains a lot of strange looking devices but some are similar to what they've seen before, a weather device from Medrona, DHD and communication stones. They move around the room and Alisana makes her way towards the back of the room moving around the devices looking for a particular device.

Teal'c is standing in the door way and he turns his head around slightly as if he senses something, he turns around and walks back in to the hallway and has a look, he sees nothing but still senses something strange.

In the room, Alisana has found what she's looking for, "I found it." she shouts.

Everyone makes their way over to Alisana.

"What is it?" asks Carter.

"This is the Oeveo device." replies Alisana.

"Cool. What's a Oeveo?." asks O'Neill.

"Please tell us it's a weapon." says Mitchell.

"Not exactly, but it can help us stop the Verdain." replies Alisana.

"So...what is it?" asks Carter.

"It has the ability to shift large objects in to an alternate reality, it was created by the alliance as a way to make travelling through space quicker." says Alisana.

"Sorry, how does shifting something to an alternate reality make space travel quicker?" asks a confused Carter.

"It was designed for use on our ships, you see in order to travel from one planet to another you have to plot a course and you have to plot that course around other planets in order to get to your destination. This device would put the ship out of phase with our reality allowing the ship to travel through planets in order to get to it's destination quicker." explains Alisana.

"And because you're out of phase you can travel in a straight line, which is the quickest route." replies Carter.

"Yes, that's right." says Alisana.

"That actually makes sense." replies Carter.

"How does this help us?" asks O'Neill.

"Well it won't work on the Verdain, but we can use it to stop them using the Fade on other worlds." says Alisana.

"I would have preferred a big cannon or something." says O'Neill.

"It'll buy us some time at least." says Carter, "It's worth a try, Sir." she says.

* * *

At that moment Teal'c comes flying through the air right through the doorway and crashes in to several devices before coming to a stop and laying unconscious on the floor.

"Teal'c" shouts O'Neill who runs over to him.

A Verdain walks through the door with his gun held out in front of him, Mitchell sees the Verdain enter the room so he opens fire with his P90 and ducks behind a large device.

Carter pushes Alisana behind another device then joins Mitchell, Daniel and Vala opening fire on the Verdain, Alisana is crouched down behind a device with her hands over her ears and scared.

O'Neill is kneeling in front of Teal'c firing at the Verdain, the Verdain fires off a few shots but misses the team and the room is filling with smoke, dust and debris caused by the weapons fire hitting the walls and objects in the room.

Eventually the Verdains armour begins flying off piece by piece from the force of the weapons fire and within moments the armour breaks apart and falls to the floor.

Just as they think it's over, another two Verdain open fire in to the room from the hallway and everyone continues to unload their P90's, because the Verdain are behind the door it's difficult to get a clear shot.

O'Neill runs out of ammo and places his gun on the ground, "Grenades." he shouts as he pulls a grenade from his vest.

O'Neill, Carter and Mitchell pull a grenade and toss them out in to the hallway, "Cover!" shouts O'Neill as he throws himself on top of Teal'c covering him from the coming blast, the grenades go off and a large cloud of dust and debris fills the room.

"Cough! Cough!. General?" shouts Mitchell as he fights his way through the dust.

"Here." shouts O'Neill.

Mitchell finds the doorway and cautiously looks out, he sees chunks of rock and armour littering the hallway, "They're gone sir." he says.

Carter, Daniel, Vala and Alisana find their way to the door, "Everyone alright?" asks Mitchell.

"Yeah." replies Carter.

O'Neill starts lifting Teal'c off the floor, Mitchell goes over to help and together they carry Teal'c out of the room, "Let's get out of here." says O'Neill.

"Jack, the Oeveo?" says Alisana while pointing back in to the room.

"Go, Sir. We'll be right behind you." says Carter, she and Alisana go back in to the room to get the Oeveo.

They all head back down the hallway the way they came as fast as they can and reach the area where they came in. Carter and Alisana race up the hallway pushing the Oeveo in front of them, they reach the others and Alisana pushes passed them all.

"Let me through." says Alisana.

Alisana places her hand on the back wall and a circle of light appears on the floor beneath them, she moves back to the others and they all stand in the circle.

The transporter ring transport them all back to the column on Lemeas surface, when they reach the surface however, they hear loud humming noises above them, they look up to the sky and see several Verdain ships heading their way, they look down toward their ship and see it surrounded by Verdain on the ground.

"Down." shouts Mitchell, and they all lay on the ground.

O'Neill looks around with a look of despair on his face, he doesn't know what to do.

"General O'Neill, this is Sheppard." says Sheppard over the radio.

"Sheppard?" replies a shocked O'Neill, "Where are you?" he asks.

"Right here Sir." says Sheppard, and a Jumper de-cloaks above their heads.

Sheppard lands the Jumper near the column and opens the back, "Don't have a lot of time Sir." he says. They all get to their feet and rush in to the back of the Jumper as Ronon and Teyla stand at the ramp watching their six, Ronon runs out to give Carter and Alisana a hand who are struggling to push the Oeveo.

"Are we set?" asks Sheppard.

"Yes, Go." says O'Neill.

With everyone safely on board the Jumper, the rear hatch closes and the Jumper takes off and re-cloaks then heads for the Stargate.

"He's alive Sir, but he needs medical attention." says Carter as she checks on Teal'c.

O'Neill goes over to Sheppard, "What are you doing here?." he asks.

"We received word that three Jaffa ships were destroyed by the Verdain on their way to the alpha site, then Atlantis' deep space sensors detected several Verdain ships heading right for you, Woolsey ordered us to come check on you." says Sheppard.

"Thanks. Get us back as quick as you can." says O'Neill.

"Yes Sir." replies Sheppard.

As the Jumper approaches the Stargate, Sheppard dials the alpha site but as they're heading towards the gate the Jumper is detected by the Verdain ships and they start shooting at the Jumper, Weapons fire narrowly misses the Jumper as it zigzags from side to side avoiding the shots

One Verdain ship gets very close so Sheppard raises the Jumper in to the air and does a 360 loop to maneuver himself behind the Verdain ship.

"Everybody hold on." shouts Sheppard as he lifts the nose of the Jumper.

The Jumper comes around and is now behind the Verdain ship, Sheppard deploys the drone pods and with a look of determination on his face, he fires at the ship in front. The impact from the drones is enough to throw the Verdain ship off course, "Alright, we're leaving." says Sheppard and he guides the Jumper safely through the gate.


	20. Chapter 20

Sheppard flies the Jumper out of the gate at the alpha site, knowing Teal'c needs immediate medical attention he heads directly for Atlantis.

"Atlantis this is Sheppard, have a medical team meet us in the Jumper bay." says Sheppard over the radio.

"Colonel is everything alright?" asks Woolsey.

"Everyone's accounted for sir, but Teal'c been injured." replies Sheppard.

"Dr Keller and a medical team will meet you there." says Woolsey.

Sheppard guides the Jumper in to the main Jumper bay and the rear hatch slowly opens as it comes to a stop on the platform, Mitchell, Carter, Daniel, Vala and Alisana exit the Jumper.

"OK let's go." says Keller to her team as they rush to the Jumper with a trolley bed.

O'Neill and Ronon carry Teal'c out and lay him on the bed, "He's been unconscious for a while doc." says O'Neill.

"What happened?" asks Keller.

"We were attacked, Teal'c took a beating and hit the floor pretty hard." says O'Neill.

"We'll take care of him." says Keller and gives O'Neill a reassuring smile, "Let's get him to the infirmary." she says.

Everyone including Ronon, Teyla and Sheppard follow Keller to the infirmary concerned for Teal'c.

"Wohw, sorry you can't come in here." says Keller holding out her hands to stop them all as they try entering the infirmary.

"I'm not leaving him." says O'Neill.

Keller nods, "I understand that but you can't all be here, you'll have to wait outside, I'll come and talk to you when I have some news...OK?" she says.

"Alright, whatever you say Doc." says O'Neill, and everyone waits outside sitting on the benches.

Everyone is anxiously waiting news, Carter, Vala, Daniel and Mitchell are all sitting on the benches, O'Neill is pacing up and down impatiently, Ronon and Sheppard are leaning against the wall and Alisana is sitting on the floor with Teyla.

* * *

About 20 minutes pass then Keller comes out of the infirmary.

"How is he, is he going to be alright?" asks O'Neill.

"He's going to be just fine." replies Keller with a smile.

"Oh thank God." says Carter.

Everyone's expression and emotions turn to relief upon hearing the news.

"There's no permanent damage, he has a broken rib and the rest are bumps and bruises, we had to sedate him for now but he's going to be just fine." explains Keller.

"Can we see him?" asks O'Neill.

"Not right now, like I said we had to sedate him but I'll let you know that moment he wakes up and you can come and see him then." says Keller.

"OK, thanks Doc." says O'Neill and he shakes Keller's hand.

"No problem." replies Keller, then she makes her way back in to the infirmary.

* * *

They all make their way towards Atlantis' control room, smiling and laughing as they talk about all the tough scrapes Teal'cs been in in the past and always come through, they enter the control room area.

"Hey Woolsey, thanks for sending Sheppard to save our a..." says O'Neill.

Unknown to them all, the Verdain have boarded Atlantis and are holding everyone in the control room at gun point. As they enter the control room, a Verdain grabs O'Neill who is caught off guard but manages to swing around and punch the Verdain away.

Mitchell, Sheppard and Ronon pull their weapons and attempt to shoot the Verdain, but the guns are knocked from their hands and after a brief scuffle they're overpowered and are standing with Verdain behind them pointing guns at their heads.

Everyone is lead in to the control room and forced to their knees, the other Atlantis personnel, including Woolsey are also on their knees with their hands behind their heads. In front of them they see Raina and Jomar standing with a large Verdain in front of them with his back turned, he turns around, it's the Commander himself.

The Commander walks over to where SG-1 are on their knees.

"You are the ones who fled from Lemea." says the Commander.

No one talks.

"You killed three of my men." says the Commander as he paces up and down in front of them.

The Commander kneels and picks up O'Neill by the scruff of his neck, "You are their leader, tell me why I shouldn't kill you now." he says.

"$%# &!£" says O'Neill.

He let's go of O'Neill and stands back up and walks over to the other personnel.

"What do you want?" asks O'Neill.

"Your kind populate this universe like vermin. You can give me nothing of value, you disgust me" says the Commander, he lunges forward and swings his arm hitting Woolsey and knocking him unconscious.

O'Neill is being held down by a Verdain and upon seeing the Commander strike Woolsey he tries to get up, but he can't.

"Damn it, what do you want?!" shouts an angry O'Neill.

"Me...he wants me." says Alisana in a low and very frightened voice.

"Don't be silly, why would he want you?" asks Teyla

"Bring IT to me." orders the Commander.

A Verdain grabs Alisana's jacket and pulls her to her feet, then marches her off toward the Commander.

"HEY" shouts Ronon as he tries to struggle free from the Verdains hold.

"Leave her alone." shouts O'Neill.

"Don't hurt her...please. Let her go, she is of no use to you." shouts Teyla

"Silence!" shouts the Commander and he walks over to Alisana, after a few moments he grabs her by the hair, Alisana is visibly scared and in pain from his tight grip, "Inferior." says the Commander.

A bright light fills the control room and Chaya and Lya appear, "Let...her...go." says Chaya in a firm tone of voice.

"Or you'll do...what?" replies the Commander.

He pushes Alisana in to the hold of one of the Verdain and takes a few steps toward Chaya, "I said...or you'll do what?" he says.

"You don't have the power to stop me, and the Nox have grown weak." says the Commander as he points to Chaya and Lya in turn.

"And this is all that's left of the others." adds the Commander as he points to Alisana.

"Haven't you destroyed enough Novum lives already?" asks Daniel.

"Novum?...hahaha...oh they don't know do they." says the Commander, he walks back over to Alisana and violently takes her from the Verdain and turns her to face SG-1, Chaya and Lya.

The Commander points to them, "Tell them." he says, "Tell them what you are." he adds.

A few seconds go by and Alisana refuses to talk, which makes the Commander angry, "TELL THEM!" he shouts angrily and tightens his grip on Alisana.

"Arrgh...ouw...I...I'm a Furling, I'm a Furling." shouts Alisana, crying from the pain.

Lya steps forward, "Stop it, let her go." she shouts.

"Our people are gathering, and we will fight you. We will not allow you to hurt these people." says Chaya.

"Your people can do nothing. You cannot stop us, you cannot stop me... and you cannot stop this." says the Commander in a menacing tone of voice.

The Commander slowly pulls out his gun and sweeps his hand around and points the gun at Jomar.

"Nooooooooooo!" screams Lya, as the Commander mercilessly shoots Jomar directly in the stomach.

After the shot is fired, the Commander with Alisana and all the Verdain disappear from Atlantis and around 30 Verdain ships that were swarming Atlantis, the Alliance and several Ha'tak vessels in orbit around the alpha site race away in to hyperspace.


	21. Chapter 21

**THE RAGE OF A NOX**

"Jomar?...JOMAR" shouts Raina as she sees Jomar holding his hands a few inches away from his stomach covered in blood.

Jomar collapses to the floor and everyone including Chaya and Lya run over to him.

"Medical team to the control room." shouts Teyla as she activates Atlantis' comms.

Raina, Lya and Chaya kneel around Jomar with tears in their eyes and Raina rests his head on her knees, stroking his hair.

"Oh Jomar." says Chaya.

"Can you heal him?" says Sheppard.

"Our healing powers don't work on the Novum." replies Chaya.

Everyone looks on in complete disbelief at what just happened, the Commander is absolutely merciless and they now know he will not stop and he will do anything to make his plans a reality.

"O...O...O'Neill." stutters Jomar.

"I'm here kid, you're going to be alright." says O'Neill as he comes around and holds Jomar's hand.

"D..Don't let them...hur...hurt Alisana." says Jomar, "Promise...me." he says.

O'Neill looks up at everyone standing around, then he looks back at Jomar, "I promise." he says.

Dr Keller rushes in to the control room with a medical team, she's never seen Chaya or Lya but knows who they are, she politely asks them to get out of the way so she can try and help Jomar, Raina refuses to move, Chaya and Lya stand up and slightly out of the way so Keller can work.

Keller gets to work treating Jomar's wounds, attempting to stop the bleeding, administering pain killers and setting up an IV, but Jomar stop breathing.

"He's stop breathing." says Keller who swings around and starts doing compressions on his chest and breathing in to his mouth.

"Paddles!...Clear!" shouts Keller as she attempts to jump start his heart and continues mouth to mouth.

"Come on." says Keller, "Breath!" she says.

After trying desperately to revive Jomar, her efforts are in vein.

"I'm sorry, he's gone." says Keller with her head lowered.

"Jomar." says Raina who reaches out and holds Chaya's hand, then they both lean forward and cry with great sadness, everyone in the room falls silent and lower their heads in respect for Jomar and they all feel the loss and sadness.

* * *

Lya who is crying, turns around and slowly makes her way to the outside balcony on Atlantis, unseen by the others. She seems lost and devastated at Jomar's death, a few minutes pass and her feelings of sadness start turning to anger which is quickly becoming visible in her eyes, she steps to the balcony railing and holds on to it staring in to the darkness of space.

One by one the people in the control room lift their heads as they feel slight vibrations at their feet, the vibrations get faster and louder slowly sending everyone off balance, the control consoles start vibrating and the display screens gently swing, then a violent shift throws everyone off their feet and crashing in to the walls, consoles and the floor.

"McKay" shouts Sheppard, "What's happening?" he asks.

McKay makes his way to a console while fighting the vibrations and trying to stay on his feet, he gets to his laptop to see what's going on.

"Atlantis is in hyperspace." shouts McKay.

"Well shut it off." shouts O'Neill.

"I can't" shouts McKay.

"Why not?" shouts Sheppard.

"Because the drive isn't even on line." replies McKay.

"Then how are we moving?" asks Sheppard.

"I don't know." replies McKay.

* * *

Everyone is confused at what's going on and Chaya looks around, "Where's Lya?" she says, Ronon spots her out on the balcony, "She's on the balcony." he shouts.

"This is impossible, we're travelling three times faster than hyperspace." shouts McKay, "At these speeds, Atlantis will break apart." he adds.

Chaya gets to her feet and makes her way to the balcony and O'Neill follows her.

Lya is out on the balcony with feelings of extreme anger flowing through her, she's controlling Atlantis and using it to chase after the Verdain ships that entered hyperspace. As Atlantis passes by planets while in hyperspace, streams of light appear to be being gathered from them and forming a large mass in front of Atlantis.

Atlantis gains on the Verdain ships, as it approaches the first few ships from behind, streams of light shoot of the the large mass and destroys them.

"Lya stop!" shouts Chaya as she stumbles out on to the balcony.

Due to the vibrations and explosions it's very loud out on the balcony and it's hard to keep steady, "Lya" shouts Chaya who then falls on the floor, Atlantis keeps moving forward and gains on more Verdain ships, and Lya continues to destroy them one at a time with the light.

O'Neill makes his way out and over to Chaya and steadily helps her to her feet, together they manage to get over to the railing and stand at either side of Lya, they look out and see the Verdain ships being destroyed.

"You must stop, Lya." says Chaya.

"Why, she's destroying them." shouts O'Neill, "I say let them have it." he says.

"She's angry." shouts Chaya.

"She has a right to be." replies O'Neill.

"You don't understand, if she doesn't stop she'll kill millions of people." shouts Chaya.

"What?!" says O'Neill.

Atlantis continues pushing forward and more ships are destroyed, eventually all the Verdain ships are gone and only the Commanders remains.

O'Neill realises Alisana is on that ship, he grabs Lya by the shoulders and turns her around to face him, "Lya...Lya...listen to me." shouts O'Neill.

Lya doesn't seem to be listening and is continuing to stare angrily at the Commanders ship.

"Lya, Alisana is on that ship." shouts O'Neill, "Did you hear me. We'll get him for what he did, but not like this...you have to stop now." he says.

Atlantis gets ever closer to the Commanders ship and Chaya and O'Neill get really worried.

"I know how you feel, believe me I do. I swear to God he'll pay for what he did, you have my word on that. Stop this. Lya...Lya." shouts O'Neill.

At this point Lya slowly looks at O'Neill, "Stop." says O'Neill in a comforting tone of voice.

The Commanders ship moves away as Atlantis begins to slow, tears fall from Lya's eyes as she looks to the floor. Atlantis comes to a stop and Lya looks up at O'Neill, "Jomar" she says softly, then O'Neill holds her in an embrace and they both fall to their knees.

"I know...it's ok" says O'Neill.

Chaya kneels behind Lya and places her hand on her back, Lya feels Chaya's hand and looks at her, "I'm sorry" says Lya.


	22. Chapter 22

Lya, Chaya and O'Neill walk slowly back in to the control room, as they enter they see everyone getting to their feet and looking over at them as they come from the door.

"It's alright, it's over." says O'Neill.

O'Neill let's go of Lya and she makes her way over to Raina who is still kneeling on the floor holding Jomar's head, Keller and the others step back as Lya approaches. Lya crouches down and places her hand on Raina's shoulder, she then gently grips her hand and stands Raina on her feet.

"He's gone, Raina. He is at peace now." says Lya.

"No." says Raina angrily as she pushes Lya away, "You let this happen, he's dead because of you." she shouts.

"Raina." says Teyla in a calm voice.

"No, no. It's all of you. You said you would keep us safe, now Alisana is gone and Jomar is dead." shouts Raina, she walks over to O'Neill, "You promised!." she shouts.

Raina holds her forehead confused and upset, she cries a little more and then runs off out of the control room, "Raina. I will go after her." says Teyla as she chases Raina down the hall.

"Atlantis, this is Swanson. Come in" says Swanson on board the Alliance over the radio.

O'Neill is standing and feeling guilty that he has let them down, he hears Swanson's call and goes over to the communication console, "This is O'Neill." he says.

"Good to hear your voice Sir, is everyone alright?" replies Swanson.

O'Neill has a quick look around at everyone, "We lost Jomar and Alisana, everyone else is...where still here." he says.

A few moments of silence pass by, "Sorry Sir." says Swanson.

"Yeah...so am I." replies O'Neill.

"We tried to help but the Verdain boarded us and there was nothing we could do." says Swanson, "Your orders Sir?" she says.

"Stand by, I'll be in touch." replies O'Neill.

O'Neill hunches down at the console gently shaking his head, he isn't sure what to do next, Sheppard walks over and stands near him.

"What do you want to do Sir?" asks Sheppard.

"I don't know, Sheppard." replies O'Neill.

"We go after her and get her back." says Ronon with his hand on his gun holster.

O'Neill turns around and looks at Chaya, "Are your people going to help us or not?" he asks.

"Yes, it wasn't easy convincing them but they have agreed to help." replies Chaya.

"Great. So where are they?" asks O'Neill.

"They need time to gather the others, the Verdain are very powerful, if we're going to fight them we must do so in great numbers." replies Chaya.

O'Neill then looks at Lya, "What happened out there?" he asks.

"I was angry." replies Lya.

"Yeah I got that. I'm talking about what you did, you almost killed us and destroyed Atlantis." says O'Neill.

Chaya steps forward, "As I explained before, the people of this galaxy were once very different to how they are now." she says.

"What does that mean?" asks O'Neill.

Lya goes on to explain that the Nox are capable of controlling natural energy, this is what gives them their cloaking and healing abilities. However, the Nox limit themselves to how much natural energy they use, if they use too much then they become unable to control it and it takes them over.

Gaia was once a desert planet with very little plant life, when we discovered our abilities we used them to bring life to our world, but the feeling the energy brought us felt so good and soon it became an addiction, we wanted more.

Our use of natural energy became a way of life but we did not realise the damage we were causing, we were unknowingly sucking the life energy from other worlds which became apparent when one of our suns vanished from our skies.

With the help of the Alterans we rid ourselves of our addiction to the energy and learnt to control our use of it.

"What you witnessed out there is not who we are now, I am ashamed and I apologise." says Lya.

"Well you scared the heck out of me." says O'Neill, "Don't do it again." he says.

"Why didn't you tell us about Alisana?." asks Daniel.

"I sensed she did not want me to tell you." replies Chaya.

"But you knew she was a Furling?" asks Daniel.

"Yes." replies Chaya.

"What do they want her for?" asks O'Neill.

"We don't know." replies Chaya.

Daniel walks over to O'Neill with a look of great concern on his face, "We have to save her, Jack." he says.

"We will." says O'Neill, he then looks at Chaya and Lya, "Do you know where they went?" he asks.

"Yes, they have set up a base on Sehabo." replies Lya.

"Got a gate address?" asks O'Neill.

"Sehabo doesn't have a Stargate." replies Chaya.

"OK so how do we get there, and what do we do when we get there, we can't take Atlantis." asks O'Neill, "Any ideas?...anyone?" he says while looking around.

"Jumper." says Woolsey, rubbing his head and nursing a bad headache caused by the Commanders punch.

"Right a Jumper." says McKay, "We just finished fitting them with hyperdrives, should be able to get you there." he adds.

"And Jumpers have cloaks." says Sheppard.

"We were cloaked on Lemea, they still found us." says O'Neill.

"May be they won't this time. They won't be expecting us to follow them to their base, we'll have the element of surprise." says Mitchell.

"There's still one tiny problem." says McKay, "The hyperdrive on the Jumpers is only good once, once you get there how are you going to get back?" he asks.

"We'll take one of their ships." says Sheppard.

"We don't know how to fly those things." says O'Neill.

"Alisana can. We get to the planet, rescue Alisana and she can fly us home." says Mitchell, "Mission accomplished." he adds.

"Missions accomplished?, do you really think it's going to be that simple." says Carter.

"Sure, why not. In and out." replies Mitchell.

"Alright. Carter and McKay, you stay here and try and figure out how to use the Oeveo gizmo, We'll go to Sehabo and get Alisana." orders O'Neill.

Carter and McKay head off to the Jumper bay to get the Oeveo, the rest of the team gather in the control room.

"Are you all sure you're up for this, if we get caught they'll probably kill us." says O'Neill.

"Never leave a man behind right." says Ronon.

"Starting to like them huh. She's a girl by the way." says Sheppard.

"Shut up." replies Ronon

"Let's do this." says Mitchell.

They all head out towards the Jumper bay and as they pass Chaya and Lya, O'Neill goes up to them.

"You guy's aren't going anywhere are you?" asks O'Neill.

"We will remain here and help your people prepare." says Chaya.

"Good luck, O'Neill. Bring her home." says Lya and she places her hands on O'Neill's shoulders and gives him a bow of respect.

* * *

**THE VINCULAR**

The Commander has returned to his great battle ship on Sehabo and is walking through the corridor with Alisana walking at his side, two Verdain guards walk behind ensuring Alisana doesn't go anywhere.

Alisana has her head down facing the floor, lifting her head slightly every so often to look through the windows on the doors as she passes them by.

They enter the room with the dome shaped device and as the walk in, Alisana sees the Nox and the Ancient locked in a room through the glass, they notice Alisana and get to their feet, standing at the glass window watching her pass by, with expressions of surprise on their faces.

As the approach the device, Alisana looks up and sees it and her jaw lowers a little, she turns her head and looks at the Nox and the Ancient, then looks at the device once more.

She recognises the device and realises what he wants her for, she shakes her head, "No, no I won't." shouts Alisana as she tries to turn around and get away.

She's stopped by the guards and dragged on her feet towards the device where the Commander is now stood and waiting, the guards push her really hard to the floor by the Commanders feet.

"Pick it up." orders the Commander to the guards.

The guards pick her up and hold her in place, Alisana's face is red and wet from her tears, her nose now slowly bleeding from the impact of her fall.

"You know what this is, don't you." says the Commander.

"The Vincular." replies Alisana, "I won't do it." she adds.

"Oh but you will." says the Commander, "Bring them." he shouts to the Verdain guarding the Nox and the Ancient.

The male Nox and Ancient are brought out of the holding room and held next to Alisana.

The Ancient looks at Alisana's wet and bloody face, "How could you hurt this child." he says.

"Silence." shouts the Commander.

The Commander drags them one by one and pushes them over to the front of the Vincular, he then positions himself to the side of them and points to the device.

"Now...activate it." he says.

Alisana, the Nox and the Ancient firm up their postures refusing to do what he says and they remain silent.

"Activate it." says the Commander slowly and through his teeth.

He gets angry again when no one budges, he kicks the Ancient in the back of his knees sending him to the floor in agony, he then grabs the Nox by the back of the neck and bends him forward, the Commander pulls his gun pushes it into the back of the Nox's head.

"Do it now." he shouts.

"Ok...ok..STOP!" shouts Alisana.

The Commander holsters his gun, removes his grip on the Nox and picks up the Ancient, "Activate it." he says.

The Nox, the Ancient and Alisana slowly extend their arms and place their hands on the large blue crystal situated on the front of the Vincular.

"I am Alteran." says the Ancient.

"I am Nox." says the Nox.

Alisana looks at the Commander for a moment, the Commander looks back at her with a fearless stare.

"I am Furling." reluctantly says Alisana.

After a few seconds the crystal begins to glow and deep humming noise emanates from the dome, as it gets louder a ball of blue energy appears above the Vincular.

The Commander pushes them all out of the way and stands in front of the Vincular looking up at the ball of blue energy, "Yes." he says joyfully.

"In a few hours, everything in this galaxy will cease to exist." says the Commander, he turns around and looks at his guards, "Take the Vincular to the Stargate." he orders and he starts walking towards the door.

"Commander." shouts one of the guards, "What should we do with these?" he asks.

The Commander turns and looks at the Nox, Ancient and Alisana, "Take them to the cells." he orders, "They can watch as their precious galaxy fades away before I kill them." he adds.

"Wa..ha..ha..ha..ha" laughs the Commander as he exits the room, his laughter can be heard echoing down the corridors.

The Nox, the Ancient and Alisana are taken to separate holding rooms, the rooms are square about 8 feet across and 8 feet high and completely bare, a shield prevents them from escaping and a single large window spans the entire back wall looking out in to space.

Alisana glances around the empty room and then walks over to the window, she slides herself down the corner of the wall and sits on the floor, resting her head on her knees as she squeezes up in to a ball, lonely cold and frightened.


	23. Chapter 23

**THE RESCUE**

O'Neill, Mitchell, Ronon and Sheppard are in a Jumper outside Atlantis, fully suited up and carrying as much ammo and weapons as they can, they prepare to head off on their missions to rescue Alisana from Sehabo.

"Atlantis, this is Sheppard. We're ready to go." says Sheppard over the radio.

"Understood Colonel, good luck." replies Woolsey.

"Hey is McKay there?" says Shappard.

"Yes, I'm here." says McKay.

"Are you sure this hyperdrives going to work?" asks Sheppard.

McKay looks at Zelenka and they share a look of slight confidence, "Err..yes absolutely. You should be fine." he says, "Just, don't err..don't push it too hard." he adds.

"Why?" asks Sheppard.

"Well there's a slight, small..tiny chance it could overload." replies McKay.

Everyone in the Jumper looks at Sheppard, "How tiny a chance, Rodney?" asks Sheppard.

"Very small, hardly worth mentioning. Good luck." replies McKay.

"Thanks" says Sheppard, not exactly filled with confidence.

"Everybody set?" says O'Neill.

"OK, hold on...here we go, in 3...2..." says Sheppard.

Just before Sheppard is about to activate the hyperdrive, Raina comes over the radio, "Wait. Mr O'Neill." she says.

"Raina is that you?" asks O'Neill.

"Yes Sir. You're going after Alisana?" asks Raina.

"Yes we are." replies O'Neill.

"I'm sorry I yelled at all of you, and I didn't mean what I said." says Raina, "I hope you can forgive me." she adds.

"You've nothing to be sorry about. Don't worry, we're going to put things right." says O'Neill.

"Make sure you all come back in one piece ok." says Raina.

"We plan too." says Sheppard, "OK, in 3...2...1" he adds.

Sheppard activates the hyperdrive and the Jumper launches in to hyper space, the drive appears to be working and the dampeners are keeping everything steady with just a slight vibration throughout the Jumper, "OK. We're still alive, that's a good sign." says Sheppard.

* * *

They spend at least an hour in hyperspace, then they reach their destination and exit hyperspace a short distance from Sehabo, Sheppard quickly activates the cloak, as they look out of the Jumper they see hundreds of Verdain ships surrounding Sehabo in group formations.

"Is anyone else seeing this?" asks Mitchell.

"This could be a problem." says Sheppard.

"Just keep going, we need to get to the surface." says O'Neill.

Sheppard continues flying the Jumper slowly towards Sehabo, they pass really close to Verdain ships, it's like navigating a mine field. The Jumpers HUD activates and displays a power alert, because of the hyperdrive their power is almost completely drained, Sheppard pilots the Jumper as fast as he can to Sehabo.

They reach Sehabo undetected and head through the atmosphere, they see hundreds of Verdain marching on the surface and hundreds more ships scattered around, they also see the enormous ship below and upon seeing the large protruding guns at the sides and top they immediately know it's a battle ship and they now realise what they're up against.

The Jumpers power fluctuates, the lights of the fly controls blink on and off and the cloak deactivates.

"Oh cr*p." says Sheppard.

Suddenly the power completely cuts out.

"Everybody hold on to something." shouts Sheppard as he loses control of the Jumper and it plummets towards the surface.

The Jumper zooms toward the surface and they hear the whistle of the wind as it cuts through the air, as they approach the surface, Mitchell gets out of his seat and runs to the back of the Jumper, Sheppard follows and he leaps in to the back just as the Jumper hits the surface.

It bounces off a hill top and continues a few hundred feet through the air before crashing in to the side of another hill, half burying the Jumper, everyone in the back is violently thrown around.

* * *

Ronon awakes to near complete darkness, sparks of light flash inside the Jumper from broken wires above.

"Sheppard?" says Ronon as he gets to his feet.

"Here." replies Sheppard, pushes boxes and debris off himself.

"General...Mitchell?" says Sheppard.

Ronon hears faint groans behind him, he sees O'Neill and Mitchell moving and he goes over to help them up, "You ok?" he asks.

"Yeah." replies Mitchell.

"I'm alright, I'm alright." replies O'Neill.

Everyone gets to their feet and brushes themselves down, "Alright." says Sheppard and he walks over to the rear hatch. He looks around and sees the manual release, he pulls the handle and the hatch slowly opens, dirt falls through the sides of the hatch as it opens.

"There's no way the Verdain didn't see us, we have to get out of here before they come looking." says Mitchell.

They grab all the weapons, ammo and supplies they can find scattered around the Jumper floor and head outside.

"Where too?" asks Ronon.

"Well I don't think we're too far from that ship we saw, if Alisana is here I think that's where she'll be." says Sheppard.

"I agree. We should head there." replies O'Neill.

Sheppard looks around but surrounded by hills he doesn't have a very good view, "Err..that way." says Sheppard as he points North-East of the Jumper.

* * *

Night falls on Sehabo and they've been walking for a couple hours across and over the hills, they reach the top of a hill and see the lights from all the ships below, they quickly lay down so not to be seen by the Verdain.

Mitchell and O'Neill get our their binoculars to get a better look, they see ships being loaded with Verdain and leaving the surface headed for the atmosphere, the battle ship sits below with small groups of guards patrolling around it.

Mitchell spots a large container near the battle ship that looks like a good place to head for, out of the sight of the patrolling Verdain.

"I see it." says O'Neill.

"How do we get in once we're down there?" asks Sheppard.

O'Neill looks closer at the battle ship for a few moments and sees two guards walk down a ramp out of the back of the ship, they appear to leave the ramp unguarded, "There, we go in the back." he says.

"Get ready." says O'Neill.

He watches the guards through his binoculars for a few minutes to work out their walking patterns, as he sees them turn facing away from the ramp he gives the order, "OK go go" says O'Neill.

They all get to their feet and run down the hill toward the large crate, they reach the crate and duck down around it with their weapons drawn and ready. Mitchell waits for his chance and then runs to the ramp at the back of the battle ship, when he reaches the ramp he waits a few more seconds and them takes a quick look inside the ship.

Mitchell sees that it's clear and gives two clicks on his radio informing the others to comes over, as a guard patrol moves away from them they run over and up the ramp in to the ship, they slowly move forward through the corridor and pass lots of doors.

"Back, get back" whispers Sheppard as he hears footsteps approaching.

Ducking through an open doorway in to a darkened room they stand firmly against the wall, four Verdain pass by them and they remain undetected. Ronon looks out in to the corridor and gives the all clear, they exit the room and continue forward.

They continue making their way through the large corridors of the ship and avoid more Verdain along the way, they come to a room with another ramp exiting the ship, on closer look they see several guards moving the Vincular down the ramp.

"What do you think that is?" asks O'Neill.

"Beats me, Sir." says Mitchell.

"Let's keep moving." says O'Neill.

After a few minutes they come to the end of the corridor and it breaks off in two directions, O'Neill and Mitchell go one way and Sheppard and Ronon go the other way.

O'Neill and Mitchell find a room with lots of screens inside, the room is empty so they go in, after looking at the screens they realise it's a security room and the screens display real time footage from all over the ship.

They see the Commander standing on the bridge of the ship, a number of Verdain walking the corridors, and then they spot Alisana on one of the screens.

"There she is." says O'Neill.

"That's great Sir, but where is that?" asks Mitchell, crouching by the doorway watching for anyone coming.

O'Neill looks at the controls below the screens and starts randomly touching them, he accidentally turns on the lights in the room and retracts the outside ramp causing a Verdain to fall off.

"Oh..err..nuts." says O'Neill, frantically touching controls and trying to undo everything he's just done.

The outside ramp lowers and hits the Verdain who earlier fell off right on the head and trapping him underneath the ramp and the lights in the room go off, O'Neill touches more controls and and finds one that brings up a layout of the ship.

"Alright." says O'Neill and he moves his finger over the screen plotting a route to Alisana's location, "It's not far from here." he says.

O'Neill goes over and crouches near Mitchell, "Is it clear?" he says.

"Yes Sir." replies Mitchell.

"OK, let's go." says O'Neill and they leave the room and head down the corridor.

* * *

They reach the cells and after checking for guards they head inside, they pass the Nox and the Ancient who they're very surprised to see and then reach Alisana's cell.

O'Neill looks in through the force shield, "Alisana...Alisana." he says, he gently whistles but she doesn't acknowledge him, "Hey." he says.

"What's wrong Sir?" asks Mitchell.

"I don't know." replies O'Neill, "We have to get this shield down." he says.

They hear two clicks over the radio from Sheppard trying to communicate.

"Sheppard." says Mitchell.

"Yeah it's me, we found a ship." replies Sheppard.

"Where are you?" asks Mitchell.

"About 30 meters from our last position." replies Sheppard.

O'Neill gets on the radio, "Stay put, we found Alisana, we're going to get her and then come to you." he says.

"Copy that." replies Sheppard.

Mitchell looks around the walls surrounding the cell entrance then looks at O'Neill, "Sir how are we going to get in there?" he asks.

"We're going to have to use C4." says O'Neill.

"That'll make one heck of a noise Sir." replies Mitchell.

"I know." says O'Neill and he gets back on the radio, "Sheppard, the only way to get Alisana out is to use C4...get ready to haul a***." he says.

"Yes Sir." replies Sheppard.

Mitchell gets C4 from his vest and sticks it to what he believes to be the weakest point on the wall surrounding the cell, "Ready Sir." he says, and he and O'Neill head away and take cover against a wall.

"Do it." says O'Neill.

Mitchell blows the C4 which successfully shuts down the shield, but it also sets off an alarm within the ship.

O'Neill runs in to the cell, "Alisana, come on let's go." he shouts, she doesn't move so he goes over and lifts her up. He sees her now bloody and bruised face and his facial expression turns to one of horror, "What did they do to you." he says.

"Sir we have to go." shouts Mitchell as he looks down the corridor eager to get moving.

O'Neill looks at him and then lifts Alisana up in to his arms and runs out carrying her, as he passes the Nox and the Ancient he stops, "What about them." he says.

"Leave us. We can't remove our restraints and with them the Commander will track us." quickly says the Ancient as he approaches the front of his cell.

"Take her." says the Nox.

"Sir we really have to go." shouts Mitchell.

O'Neill reluctantly leaves them behind and runs out with Mitchell, they run through the corridor and the alarms continue to sound. Mitchell sees Verdain coming from behind so he turns and while running backwards he opens fire on them, "Keep moving." shouts O'Neill

As they get closer to Sheppards locations they hear gunfire and the sound of Ronon's energy gun, Sheppard sees O'Neill and Mitchell approaching.

"Through here, hurry." shouts Sheppard as he constantly turns around to help both Mitchell and Ronon fend off the Verdain.

Their weapons fire isn't stopping them but it's slowing them down a little.

O'Neill runs in to the ship bay and on to the Verdain inside, Mitchell runs passed Sheppard and follows O'Neill, Sheppard and Ronon stand back to back at the door still firing at the Verdain.

"Get that thing moving." shouts Sheppard.

O'Neill carries Alisana on to the ship and sits her on a bench at the back, "Alisana?" he says trying to get her attention, he looks out at Sheppard and Ronon and he knows they don't have long.

"Alisana!." shouts O'Neill, he then shakes her a little by the shoulders, "Snap out of it." he shouts.

Alisana becomes lucid and looks around, "Jack" she says.

"Yes it's me." says O'Neill, "We need you to fly the ship...can you do it." he adds.

After a brief moment of confusion, Alisana gets up and runs to the flight controls, "Yes." she says, she opens the hanger doors above the ship and powers it up.

"Let's go, we're leaving." shouts O'Neill as he stands at the ships ramp.

Sheppard and Ronon fire off a few more shots and then run as fast as they can to the ship, they make it on board just as the Verdain enter the hanger.

"Go, let's go, go." says Mitchell.

Alisana raises the ship out of the hanger and above the battle ship, Verdain fire at it trying to stop them leaving, she ships pulls forward and then up heading for the atmosphere.

As they break through the atmosphere, several ships follow behind and the ships above Sehabo have been alerted and waiting for them. Alisana pilots the ship as fast as she can, avoiding a barrage of weapons fire from all directions, the ship gets hit sending it twisting and shaking and everyone loses balance.

"This thing have weapons?." asks Sheppard.

"Yes, over there." replies Alisana and she points to the console beside her.

Sheppard sits down in front of the console but doesn't have a clue, "How do you use this thing?" he asks.

"Use the large and small rings to target, then the blue button to fire." says Alisana as they continue getting hit and thrown off balance.

"That's it?" says Sheppard, he uses the controls and targeting information is displayed on the viewer in front of him. Sheppard quickly learns that the two rings control both a horizontal and vertical on the screen, he must cross the lines to lock on target.

"Firing." shouts Sheppard as he not very confidently believes he has a lock and he fires the weapon.

A shot is fired and he watches as a blue energy beam waves out from their ship and successfully destroys a Verdain ship in front.

"Good shot." says Alisana.

"Thanks." replies Sheppard.

Alisana looks back and forth at Sheppard who's no longer touching the controls, "Well keep firing." she says.

"Oh right." says Sheppard and he concentrates again.

As Alisana zigzags the ship away from Sehabo trying to avoid being hit, Sheppard continues to target and fire at the Verdain successfully taking our two more ships.

Soon Alisana manages to put enough distance between them and the Verdain and enters hyperspace heading back to Atlantis.


	24. Chapter 24

**THE BEGINNING OF THE END**

On Sehabo the Commander is on the bridge being informed by his guards of what just happened.

"The Humans infiltrated our ship, Commander." says one of the Guards.

The Commander stands with his back turned to the guards, facing out of the front of the ship with his hands behind his back.

"You allowed them to take my ship?." says the Commander.

"They were very fast, by the time we detect them it was too late." says the guard, "We tried to stop them, but they destroyed several of our ships before escaping." he adds.

"I do not care about your excuses." says the Commander, "Leave, I will deal with you later." he adds.

"There is something else, Commander. The Humans took the girl." says the Guard.

At this point the Commander turns around, brings his arms around to the front and walks over to the guard.

"What?!" shouts the Commander.

"The girl was taken from her cell." says the guard with his head lowered.

The Commander takes in a few deep angry breaths, then grabs the guard and throws him violently at the wall, the guards armour breaks apart and falls in to a pile on the floor.

"Arrggggh" screams the Commander, he walks back over by his seat, "Is the Vincular ready?" he asks.

"It is almost at the gate, Commander." replies a Verdain sat at the controls.

"Then I will meet them there." says the Commander and he walks out of the bridge, stepping on the broken armour on the floor as he goes.

* * *

Back on Atlantis, which has rejoined the slowly growing fleet of ships at the alpha site, O'Neill and his team have returned, Alisana lands the Verdain ship in the lower Jumper bay and everyone makes their way to the tower.

While Sheppard, Ronon and Mitchell head to the control room, O'Neill takes Alisana to be checked over by Keller in the infirmary, they walk inside and see Teal'c sitting up on the side of a bed.

"T." shouts O'Neill.

"O'Neill." replies Teal'c.

O'Neill gives him a friendly slap on the shoulder, "Good to see you buddy." he says.

"It is good to see you too, O'Neill." replies Teal'c.

"Hey doc, got a patient for you." says O'Neill as he points to Alisana.

"I'm fine." says Alisana.

"I'll be the judge of that." says Keller, "Come on, let's get you looked at." she adds and she gently guides Alisana over to a bed.

Teal'c sees a sad look on O'Neill, "Do not worry, she will be fine." he says.

"Lord knows what they did to her, Teal'c. How could they do that, she's like 16 years old, she's just a kid." says O'Neill as he sits next to Teal'c on the side of the bed looking over at Alisana.

"I should never have let them take her." adds O'Neill.

"It is not your fault O'Neill." replies Teal'c.

O'Neill looks at Teal'c, "I don't think we're going to win this one." he says, "I'm afraid of what's coming Teal'c." he adds.

Teal'c has a feeling of worry himself as he's never seen such fear in O'Neill's eyes before, he stands up and faces O'Neill.

"I am not ready to die, O'Neill. We have faced great enemies before, this one will be no different." says Teal'c, "However, if this is indeed the end, then we die together, fighting the enemy, with honour." he adds.

O'Neill jumps off the bed and grabs Teal'c in a manly hug, "Thank's Teal'c." he says.

Teal'c give O'Neill his traditional bow of respect, and a slight smile.

O'Neill goes over to Alisana's bed where she's being examined and patched up by Dr Keller, "How's our patient doc?" he asks.

"It's no as bad as it looks, she'll be fine." replies Keller with a reassuring smile, "I'll be right back." she adds and she goes off toward the medicine cabinet.

O'Neill moves around the bed and sits next to Alisana, "Are you ok?" he asks.

"Yeah." replies Alisana.

"Listen, err...I'm so sorry." says O'Neill.

"Jack..." says Alisana softly, she turns to face him with one hand on the bed, "It wasn't your fault. I didn't tell you who I was and I put everyone in danger. You should have left me there." she adds.

"Hey, there was no way in heck I was going to leave you in the hands of those...things." says O'Neill, "You're one of us now...you've got the uniform and everything." he says jokingly.

Alisana laughs a little, "Thank you for coming back for me." says Alisana.

O'Neill smiles at her, "Don't mention it, come here." he says and he gives her a hug.

Keller walks back over holding some pills and a small cup of water, "Am I interrupting something?" she says.

"No, we're err...we're good." says O'Neill.

"Take these, they'll help keep the swelling down." says Keller as she hands Alisana the pills and water.

Alisana takes them and hands the cup back to Keller, "Can I go?" she asks innocently.

"Yes you can go, but I want you to take it easy for a while." replies Keller.

"Thank you." replies Alisana as she gets to her feet and starts walking out.

O'Neill is a little surprised by her eagerness but happy she's alright, "Thanks doc." he says as he too gets to his feet and walks away, "Coming Teal'c?" he asks and together they all head to the control room.

* * *

As they enter the control room Raina spots Alisana and runs over to give her a hug, "I'm so glad you're safe." she says.

Teyla goes over and also gives her a hug, "Welcome back." she says.

Then Vala comes over to Alisana and for some reason gives her a tight squeezing motherly type hug holding Alisana's head in her chest, "Oooh..good to have you back." she says in a baby talk type manner.

"Thank's" says a slightly disturbed Alisana, she then smiles at Vala as she lets go.

Alisana looks over to Lya and Chaya and they share a gentle bow and a smile, then Raina holds Alisana's hand and takes her in to the briefing room to break the news about Jomar in private.

"It's good to have you back, General." says Woolsey.

"Sir." says Carter with a smile.

"Yes. It's good to be back." replies O'Neill, "Colonel." he adds.

"Hi Sir, I was just telling McKay here how his hyperdrive modifications almost got us all killed." says Sheppard.

"What?, Don't blame me. I warned about the hyperdrive before you left." moans McKay.

Sheppard smirks, "Relax Rodney, I'm kidding." he says.

"Any luck with that Oeveo gizmo?" asks O'Neill.

"Err yes sir." says Carter and she goes over to her laptop, she brings up the large display.

"This is a simulation of how the device works, Sir. As you can see it creates an energy pulse that shifts whatever object it's pointed at out of our normal reality." explains Carter, "The object is still there, we just can't see or interact with it." she adds.

McKay gets up and adds his bit, "The amount of power needed to use the device is enormous, lucky for us it just happens to be powered by what I believe is an early version of ZPM." says McKay proudly.

"Fascinating. But again I ask you...how does this help us?" asks O'Neill.

McKay and Carter look at eachother, McKay doesn't have an answer so looks at the floor and Carter bites her lip for a moment, "We don't know Sir." says Carter.

O'Neill makes a puzzled nodding motion, "Keep working on it." he says.

"Yes Sir." replies Carter.

* * *

Raina comes out of the briefing room leaving Alisana behind sat at the table, Ronon looks in and then back at Raina, "Is she ok?" he asks concerned.

"She just wants to be alone for a minute." replies Raina.

"How are you doing?" asks O'Neill.

"You know...I'm as good as can be. No I'm good, thank you." replies Raina.

O'Neill smiles and taps her on the shoulder, "If you need anything, just let us know ok." he says.

Alisana is sat in the briefing room slightly sprawled across the table, one arm held out on the table with her head resting on it, in the other hand she holds the other crystal Carter and McKay had, just staring and thinking about Jomar.

"I'm going to miss you, Jomar." she whispers to herself, "Wish you were here." she says.

Everyone is in the control room talking quietly out of respect so not to disturb Alisana.

Daniel is leaning against the railing with his arms crossed thinking to himself.

"I still don't understand." says Daniel as he breaks the silence in the room.

"Daniel?." says O'Neill.

"About Alisana." says Daniel.

"What about her?" asks Woolsey.

Despite them talking quietly, Alisana hears them talking about her so she puts the crystal down, gets up and slowly walks toward the doors.

As she gets to the doors she hears a jingling sound behind her and sees a faint green light on the back of the door, she looks behind her but sees nothing, she then continues walking out of the briefing room.

"Alisana is a Furling right?." says Daniel.

"Right." says O'Neill.

"Well from what they've told us, when the Verdain attacked the alliance of races they transported all the Novum children on to their ship, but Alisana isn't a Novum...so why was she on the ship?" asks Daniel.

"Why don't you ask me." says Alisana, walking towards everyone.

They didn't realise she was there, "Alisana, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to talk about you behind your back." says Daniel.

"It's ok, Daniel." says Alisana.

"It's pretty stupid really, I got myself in to it. Since I was little I've always been fascinated by technology, I use to sneak around the research labs and play with the devices our people were making just so I could learn more." says Alisana, "I just have a passion for technology, like General Carter." she adds.

"The carrier ship that the Verdain hijacked was the latest in our fleet, it was built using all our most recent technology and I couldn't resist checking it out. When no one was looking I snook on board the carrier to take a look around and I was in the engine room when I felt it taking off, I couldn't leave because I knew I would get caught and be in a lot of trouble, then the rebels took over the carrier and filled it with the Novum." explains Alisana.

"You were trapped." says Carter.

"Yes. I knew the rebels hated our people and I was afraid of what they would do if they caught me, so I hid amongst the others and just kept quiet." says Alisana.

Alisana looks at Raina, "I didn't want to lie to you." she says.

"You did the right thing." replies Raina, "It doesn't matter where you come from, or that you're not a Novum. I'll always be your friend." she adds.

"May be you should use the Stargate from now on." says Carter with a smile.

Both Raina and Alisana giggle at Carters comment, then Alisana remembers something.

"Stargate." says Alisana and she runs over to McKay, "What's the closet Stargate to Sehabo?" she asks in an urgent tone.

McKay gets on his laptop and takes a look at the address list, "P3X-504" says McKay, "But we haven't been there yet." he adds.

"Dial it." says Alisana, "Quickly." she adds.

McKay looks at Woolsey and O'Neill for orders on what to do.

"Alisana, what's going on?" asks O'Neill.

"Jack, the Commander used us on his shit to activate the Vincula device, but he needs to move it to a Stargate in order to use it. There is no Stargate on Sehabo so he'll be taking it to the closest one." says Alisana.

"What's a Vincula device?" asks Carter.

Alisana is growing inpatient, "I don't have time to explain, he's going to use it to Fade other worlds." says Alisana, "You have to stop him by dialling the gate before he can dial out." she shouts.

"Dial it up." orders Woolsey.

McKay rushes over to the dialling console and quickly dials P3X-504, a few tense seconds go by and the gate creates an active connection.

Alisana lets out a sigh of relief, "That means he hasn't got there yet." she says.


	25. Chapter 25

**DECLARATION OF WAR**

The Commanders plan to inflict the Fade on other worlds has been temporarily stopped thanks to Alisana's quick thinking to dial the gate he intends to use before he could dial out.

"Alright, so what's the Vincular?" asks O'Neill.

"Chaya?" says Alisana wishing for Chaya to explain.

Chaya comes over with Lya, "The Vincular is a smaller version of the device on Dakara. The one on Dakara was designed to seed worlds with new life, unfortunately as with all life viruses and diseases would form and potentially wipe them out. The Vincular was designed to eliminate all forms of diseases on worlds, not just to prevent them from spreading to others, but to allow life to flourish without sickness and in some cases even prevent death." explains Chaya.

"Sounds good to me." says O'Neill, "What's bad about that?" he asks.

"All life forms suffer sickness and disease, and a lot of them build a natural immunity to them. Although they become immune to them, these viruses remain in their bodies, no longer harmful but it becomes a part of their biology. If we had used the Vincular device, those who's biology contained the viruses would have been wiped out along with it, that is why we abandoned the project and never used it." explains Chaya.

"Are you saying he's going to kill us all by wiping out viruses?" asks a confused Woolsey.

"No. When we abandoned the project we erased that particular function from it." says Chaya, "However, the core system still works." she adds.

"What's the core system?" asks Carter.

"As I said, the Vincular is similar to the device on Dakara. The Vincular is capable of transferring whatever it is programmed to do directly through the Stargate, in this case I believe he plans to use it to speed up the Fade process." says Chaya.

"But they already have a way to start the Fade, what do they need that for?." asks Raina.

Carter thinks for a second and then steps in to the conversation, "The clamps." she says.

"Clamps?" asks Alisana.

"We found black devices attached to Stargates on several worlds, they seemed able to control the gate remotely some how. Like the one on Gaia that stopped O'Neill from getting through the gate." says Carter, "Sir, I think I know what they are now." she adds.

"And that would be?." asks O'Neill.

"They're not planning to fade one world at a time, they're going to fade every world at once." says Carter.

"Sorry, how are they going to do that?" asks Woolsey.

"Remember our fight with the replicators, we used the device on Dakara to activate every gate at once, so we could hit every replicator at the same time with the disruption field." says Carter.

"That device has since been destroyed so the Verdain need another way, that's what the clamps are for. Sir, I believe they intend to use them to activate every gate at once and using the Vincular device to transfer the Fade through the gate and hit every world simultaneously." adds Carter.

"Oh we have to stop this." says Mitchell.

"No kidding." says O'Neill.

"Well if Alisana's right, then our connection to the gate is stopping it for now, but we only have 38 minutes before it shuts down. Well about 30 minutes now." says Carter.

Alisana steps forward, "Jack, I think I have an idea, but I'll need Carter's help." she says.

"Go." says O'Neill.

Alisana and Carter head out of the control room, "What idea?" shouts Carter as she lags behind.

* * *

On P3X-504, the Verdain have reached the planets surface and are unloading the Vincular device from the back of their ship close to the Stargate. The Verdain look towards the gate and see it's already active, although they seem a little puzzled by this they don't seem too worried and continue unloading the Vincular.

As the Vincular comes to a stop, situated about 30 feet from the gate, a ship descends through the atmosphere and lands on the surface, the rear ramp lowers and out walks the Commander accompanied by several of his guards heading towards the gate.

"Why have you not triggered the device?." says the Commander as he reaches the Vincular and two guards either side of it.

"Commander, the gate was already active when we arrived." says the guard on the left.

"Did anyone come through it?" asks the Commander.

"No, Commander. We can not trigger the device until the gate shuts off." replies the guard.

The Commander looks at the gate, after a few moments of silence he speaks, "Patience." he says, He then steps over to the Vincular and rubs the dome with his hands, "It will shut down soon enough, then this universe will be ours." he says.

* * *

On Atlantis, Alisana and Carter enter a lab where the Oeveo device is located, the Oeveo is in the middle of the room and Alisana stands by it.

"So what's your idea?" asks Carter.

Alisana points to the Oeveo, "We use it to on to stop them." she says.

Carter thinks for a moment, "You want to use it on P3X-504?, it's too far away, we don't have near enough time to get it there." she says.

"We sent it through the Stargate." says Alisana.

"No, the energy comes from the side here, you need a clear line of sight to what you want to use it on." replies Carter.

"I know, that's why we need to modify it." says Alisana.

Carter looks at Alisana with a confused expression on her face.

"Look, we modify the Oeveo to emit an kind of energy bubble. It will encompass the planet and everything on it." explains Alisana.

"OK, how do we do that." asks Carter.

"We remove the focus crystal." replies Alisana, "That's the hard part." she adds.

Alisana and Carter kneel by the Oeveo and get to work, they remove a metal panel from the front of the device, inside the device they see more panels and eight vertical glowing power rods in a circular pattern with very small gaps between each one, in the center of the rods is the focus crystal.

"How do we get it out of there?" asks Carter.

Alisana points to one of the internal panels, "These are magnetic panels, it's going to be hard but you're going to have to hold it while I extract the crystal." she says.

"Alisana, do you have any idea how much power is flowing through this thing, if you touch one of those rods you'll be fried." says Carter is a worried tone.

"I know." says Alisana.

"Hope you know what you're doing." replies a reluctant Carter, "OK." she says as she lets out a breath and reaches in and grabs the panel.

Carter tries to pull the panel and moves it a little, but she underestimates the strength of the magnetic force and it shunts back out of her grip, "Wohw. Stronger than I thought." she says.

Carter reaches in and grabs the panel again, placing her feet at the base of the Oeveo for leverage, "Ready?" she says.

"Yes." replies Alisana.

"OK...go." says Carter as she pulls on the panel with all her strenght, "Haargh" she groans as she slowly pulls the panel away, fighting the force of the magnetism.

Alisana uses a large pair of tweezer like grippers to reach slowly in between the power rods toward the focus crystal, her hands shake a little as she tries to keep them steady so not to touch the side of the rods.

"Hurry up." groans Carter with her eyes squeezed shut, pulling intensely on the panel.

"Nearly there." says Alisana as the grippers reach the crystal and she attempts to get a hold of it.

"I...can't...hold it." shouts Carter.

"Almost got it." replies Alisana.

As Alisana carefully guides the crystal out from between the rods, Carter's fingers begin to slide away from the sides of the panel losing her grip, she loses her grip and the panel shoots back in to place, at that very moment Alisana finished extracting the crystal and her and Carter fall to the floor on their backs away from the device.

They look at the Oeveo with their hearts racing, the Alisana looks at the grippers in her hand, she has the focus crystal, they look at each other and laugh.

"Phew. That was too close." says Carter with a giggle.

They get to their feet and quickly replace the outer panels on the device, they then pick it up and walk as fast as they can towards the control room.

* * *

"Is the gate still active?" shouts Carter as they enter the control room carrying the Oeveo.

"Yes, but not for long." shouts McKay.

Mitchell and Ronon go over and take the Oeveo from Carter and Alisana.

"Get it to the gate." shouts Carter, "How long do we have to it shuts down?" she asks as she stands by McKay out of breath.

"15 seconds." replies McKay.

Mitchell, Ronon and Alisana run down the stairs to the gate, "Put it down." says Alisana and she starts pushing the buttons on the side of the Oeveo to activate it.

"5 seconds." shouts Carter.

"OK, that's it..push it through." shouts Alisana, successfully activating the device.

Mitchell and Ronon rush the Oeveo across the floor and push it through the gate a fraction of a second before it deactivates.

"Do you think it made it through?" shouts Alisana up to Carter.

"We'll find out soon enough." replies Carter.

* * *

The gate shuts down on P3X-504, two Verdain approach the gate and attach a black clamp device to the side of it, as they walk away a red ring glows on the front of the clamp and the gate activates.

Clamp devices attached to gates all over the Milky Way start powering up and activating the gates they're attached too.

"We're ready, Commander." says a Verdain guard.

The Commander reaches over to the Vincular and pushes down on the large blue crystal situated on the front, a ball of blue light appears above the device and slowly intensifies.

"Now they will see the true power of the Verdain." says the Commander.

As the Vincular fully charges, a large energy beam shoots out of it and through the gate in front.

"Yeeeees." says the Commander in a victorious tone.

Suddenly he notices the air around the Vincular device becoming wavy and blurry, as it gets worse the Commander starts to see the surface of the planet through the Vincular. He slowly reaches out to touch it and as his hand reaches the large crystal at the front, his hand goes right through it.

"What is this!" shouts the Commander.

He pulls back his hand and walks around to the back of the Vincular, after he concentrates from a few seconds staring at the surface he sees the faint presence of the Oeveo device laying on the ground touching the Vincular.

It would seem that when Alisana activated the Oeveo, it had already began emitting the energy bubble, when it exited the gate on P3X-504 is was already removing itself from our reality which caused it to go unnoticed by the Verdain as it appeared.

The Oeveo builds a charge and then in one large burst of energy it engulfs the entire planet and it disappears in the blink of an eye.

"Noooo!" screams the Commander, who's armour crumbles and falls to the ground as the Oeveo engulfs the planet.

Stargates across the Milky Way deactivate and the clamp devices attached to them short out, release and fall to the ground.

* * *

On Atlantis everyone is waiting to see what happens next and are unsure if their plan had even worked.

"It's offline." shouts McKay typing on his laptop.

"What is?" asks Carter.

"P3X-504." says McKay, he brings up a display of the active Stargates in the Milky Way and points to P3X-504, "Look." he says with a smile.

On the display of the Milky Way Stargate network, P3X-504 is highlighted in red, indicating the gate is offline, moments later it flashes and is removed from the display.

"It worked." says Carter, she turns to face Alisana with a smile.

Alisana and Carter hug and everyone shakes hands, taps each other on the shoulder and claps with relief, congratulating each other.

"Good job." says O'Neill.

"It's over." says a happy Raina.

Chaya steps forward and she doesn't seem to share their joy, "Not yet." she says, she then shuts her eyes and vanishes from the control room in a bright light.

* * *

On Sehabo inside the great battle ship is a room containing the energy machine used to convert the Novum children to Verdain, the machine comes to life and fills with smoke and the floor within the machine opens, through the smoke we see a suit of armour rise from the floor.

A blinding bright light fills the room, emanating from the machine, moments later the doors of the circular chamber slide open and figure steps out, it's the Commander.

He groans as he moves his limbs, testing the armours strength, then he runs out of the room heading for the bridge. When he enters the bridge he's about to give an order when he sees Chaya standing outside at the front of the ship, he uses his power to bring her on to the bridge and they stand facing each other.

"I'm here to give you one last chance, it's not too late, you can stop this madness and rejoin your people." says Chaya.

"These are my people." replies the Commander, "We will destroy you all." he adds.

"Not without the Vincular." says Chaya.

The Commander steps closer to her, "Did you really think that would stop us, you may have slowed us down but you can not escape the inevitable." he says menacingly.

"You're not going to stop?" asks Chaya.

"Never." shouts the Commander.

"Our people will fight." says Chaya.

"Wahahaha" laughs the Commander, "Do they really believe they have a chance against us." he says, "We know your weakness, our power is much greater than yours." he adds.

"Then I suggest we end this." says Chaya, "Astrobaga." she adds.

The Commander raises his head and firms up his chest, "Very well." he says.

Then Chaya vanishes in a bright light from the bridge.

"Raise the ship." orders the Commander as he turns around and sits in his chair.

"Where are we going Commander?" asks a Verdain sitting at the ships controls.

"To War." replies the Commander.


	26. Chapter 26

**THE GATHERING**

The Verdains plans to use the Vincular device to wipe out all life in the galaxy has been successfully thwarted, but the threat is far from over, the Verdain still possess the ability to Fade worlds and offer no sign that they will stop.

The Ancient Chaya paid the Commander a visit in an attempt to persuade him to stop what he was doing and offered him a chance to rejoin their people and all would be forgiven, the Commander rejected this and remains hell bent on destroying them all.

Realising the Verdain were never going to stop, only one course of action remained, it was time to fight and end this madness once and for all.

Chaya reappears in Atlantis to looks of confusion and wonder from everyone in the control room.

"Chaya, where did you go?" asks Raina.

"I went to see the Verdain Commander." replies Chaya.

"You did what?" O'Neill complains as he approaches Chaya.

"I had too, I thought I could convince him to stop." explains Chaya.

O'Neill is a bit annoyed that Chaya went off and confronted the Commander like that without telling them first, he lets out a breath of frustration, "And?" he says.

Chaya shakes her head gently, "He will not stop." she says.

"So what do we do now?" asks Raina.

Chaya strokes Raina's hair and gives her a little smile, then turns to O'Neill, "We fight." she says.

As Lya walks over and stands next to Raina, Chaya steps forward and slowly looks everyone in the eye.

"They're coming." says Chaya, "In a couple of days they will reach Astrobaga, and we will be fighting for not only our own lives, but the lives of everyone in this galaxy." she adds.

"Sorry, what's Astrobaga?" asks Carter.

"Astrobaga is an area of space at the edge of this galaxy, it contains only one planet, lifeless and no other worlds or life forms for a great distance." replies Chaya.

"A battlefield." says Teal'c.

"In a sense, yes." replies Chaya.

Lya steps forward, "It is time to prepare." she announces, "The Verdain are very powerful, our abilities and those of the Alterans will not be enough to stop them, we must work together and attack them in force." she adds.

"Yes, about your people, when are they going to show up and help us?." asks O'Neill.

"When it is time, our people will be there." says Chaya.

"As will the Nox." says Lya.

"How long do we have?" asks Woolsey.

"Less than 2 days before they reach Astrobaga. Lya and Myself will go and gather our people, we will return when it is time." says Chaya.

Chaya holds Lya's hand and they vanish in a bright light to go and prepare and gather their people.

* * *

O'Neill turns around and get's on the radio, "Swanson this is O'Neill, come in." he says.

"Swanson here." replies Swanson.

"I need to say something, can you patch us through to all the other ships?" asks O'Neill.

"Yes Sir." says Swanson, she gives the order to open coms, "Ready Sir." she says.

O'Neill also opens city wide communications on Atlantis so everyone can hear, then he takes a few steps and prepares to speak.

"This is general O'Neill, we've received word that the Verdain are on their way...all of them. In a couple of days we'll have no choice but to fight them, you've all seen or heard what the Verdain can do, they won't stop until they've wiped us all out." says O'Neill.

O'Neill looks at the floor and remains silent for a moment, "We need every ship we can find, and we need to make sure they have shields and all the weapons they can carry. It's time to prepare...we have less than 2 days...let's move." he says.

As soon as O'Neill gets off the radio, everyone on board Atlantis, Alliance and all the Jaffa Ha'tak vessels burst in to action and start making preparations for the coming battle with the Verdain.

"Sir I'm going to head over to the Alliance and see what I can do to help." says Carter.

"OK Carter." says O'Neill.

"Dr McKay, what can we do to improve Atlantis' defences?" asks Woolsey.

"I'm not sure, Chaya charged all the ZPM's, shields are at 100%, we have thousands or drones..." says McKay.

"Railguns." says Sheppard, "When Atlantis was under siege by the Wraith we fitted railguns around the city to fend them off, can't we do the same thing again?" he asks.

"I don't see why not." replies McKay.

"Good idea, Sheppard. I'll have them brought from Earth." says O'Neill, he heads off to Woolsey's office to contact Earth and get the Deadalus and Odyssey to join them and bring the railguns.

"Dr McKay, Zelenka, I need you to go over every system in Atlantis and make sure everything is working perfectly. Double check everything." orders Woolsey.

"Col Sheppard, go to the armoury and get every weapon we have, make sure anyone whos capable of using a weapon has one." says Woolsey.

"Yes Sir." says Sheppard.

McKay and Zelenka get to work checking the systems, and Sheppard, Mitchell, Teyla and Ronon go off to the armoury.

Woolsey walks over to Daniel and Vala, "I'd like you to assist Dr Keller, we may need to convert some rooms for medical use...just in case." says Woolsey.

"Sure." replies Daniel, "Come on Vala." he says.

Raina and Alisana go over to Woolsey.

"What can we do?" asks Alisana.

"I don't know, what can you do?" asks Woolsey.

"Well...Alisana's good with technology and I can...carry stuff." says Raina not quite confident in her abilities.

Woolsey smirks a little, "I see." he says.

"We can help everyone get equipment and supplies and things like that." says an enthusiastic Alisana, "We just want to help." she adds.

"And your help is appreciated, thank you." replies Woolsey.

Raina and Alisana run off to help with whatever they can.

O'Neill comes out of Woolsey's office, "Where are they going?" he asks, pointing at Raina and Alisana with his thumb as they run round a corner.

"I'm not sure...they wanted to help." says Woolsey, "It keeps them busy." he adds.

"Ah." says O'Neill.

* * *

Over the next 36 hours everyone continues to prepare for battle, on Atlantis all systems have been checked, temporary medical bays have been set up all over the ship, anyone able to use a weapon is now suited up and ready, non essential areas of the city have been locked down and closed off, the railguns arrived and have been set up in strategic areas around the outside of the city.

Carter has been over at the Alliance and with Raina and Alisana's help have been moving from ship to ship trying to do whatever they can to increase their shield and weapons efficiency and ensure they have all the supplies they need, the Daedalus and Odyssey have join the growing fleet and are nearly fully combat ready.

More ships have joined the fleet which now consists of Atlantis, Alliance, Daedalus, Odyssey, 15 Ha'tak vessels carrying a total of 10 Al'kesh medium range bombers, 80 Death Gliders and 18 Tel'tak fitted with short range cannons.

The Alliance, Daedalus and Odyssey are equipped with shields and Asgard beam weapons, long range missiles and several railguns a piece, each ship carries 12 X-302's.

Of course Atlantis is the most powerful ship in the fleet and has powerful shields, 1000's of drones, railguns and 20 Jumpers, it will be the lead ship in the upcoming battle.

The ships are ready, the crews are ready, and the time has come to head for Astrobaga to face the Verdain.

With Atlantis in the lead they slowly set off, although their numbers may be small compared to the Verdains, in terms of the new Earth alliance it's quite an amazing and inspirational site seeing all the ships together to fight a common enemy.

One by one the ships enter hyperspace and head for Astrobaga.

* * *

The alliance fleet drops out of hyperspace at Astrobaga, they manoeuvre into a defensive line formation. Way out to the side of them they see the only planet in the system, out in front of them they see roughly 700 Verdain attack ships, formed in lines of 100 in a stacked formation like a wall, the crews on the bridge of all the alliance ships gasp at what they see before them.

The captains of all the ships stand up and look out into space, their confidence and spirit drops to near zero, they knew the Verdain had a large fleet but they weren't expecting anything like this, it's a truly frightening site.

"Holy cr*p." says McKay as he looks at the screen.

Swanson comes over the radio, "General." she says in a low voice of disbelief.

"I see it." replies O'Neill, "Stay alert." he adds.

A few minutes later, Atlantis' sensors start going crazy and beeping really loud.

McKay runs over to his laptop, "Some things coming." he shouts.

"What is it?" shouts Woolsey.

"I don't know." says McKay, "Whatever it is it's huge." he says worryingly.

As everyone gathers around the screens, they see a large hyperspace window opening behind the wall of Verdain ships, the great battle ship emerges, and everyone is in awe of its enormous size.

"That's the ship from Sehabo." says Mitchell.

"Yeah." replies O'Neill with a lump in his throat.

McKay interrupts, "We're receiving a communication." he says, he puts it on the display.

The Commander appears on screen.

"Wa...hahaha...is this it?" says the Commander, "A hand full of ships is the best you could do." he adds.

"Don't let our numbers fool you, we'll put up a heck of a fight." says O'Neill.

"Can't we negotiate, there has to be some way for peace between our people." says Woolsey.

"What are you doing?" asks O'Neill.

"Trying to avoid a blood bath if possible." replies Woolsey.

"You can't negotiate with this guy, he's nuts." says O'Neill.

"Silence." shouts the Commander in an irritated manner, "I was promised a war." he adds.

At that point Chaya and Lya reappear in the control room of Atlantis.

"And it's a war you shall have." says Lya.

"You took your time." says O'Neill, "Where are the others, we're about to get our butts kicked here." he adds.

Lya smiles at O'Neill and turns to Chaya, "They're right here." says Chaya.

Suddenly bright light beams out through the windows of every ship in the alliances fleet, hundreds of Ancients appear inside the ships.

O'Neill swings his head around looking at all the Ancients that appeard in Atlantis, "Oh, there you are." he says, he looks at Lya, "The Nox?" he asks.

Lya looks at the display, the only planet in the system is in view and they see a flash of light appear on the surface, a large group of Nox plan to use whatever natural energy is left on the planet to help fight the Verdain.

O'Neill looks at the communication screen and gives the Commander a confident smirk, the Commander groans and shuts off communication.

Moments later a line of Verdain ships slowly manoeuvre out in front of the others and come to a stop, the Ancients on board the alliances ships step closer to the front facing windows poised and ready, silence and intense concentration fills the ships as each side waits for the other to make a move.

"Get ready." says O'Neill in a low voice.


	27. Chapter 27

**WAR – PART 1**

The fleets have arrived at Astrobaga, on one side, the Earth alliance fleet is lined up with Atlantis out in front, hundreds of Ancients line the decks of the ships ready and waiting. On the other side, a line of Verdain ships wait for orders with hundreds more behind and stacked like a wall, behind them sits the great battle ship, menacing and huge.

The line of Verdain ships start slowly pushing forward, advancing on the Earth fleet, as they continue to advance an order is given and 10 Jumpers and 10 Tel'tak ships de cloak ahead of Atlantis.

"Attack." screams the Commander in a prolonged wail.

The line of Verdain ships quickly gain speed and advance on the Earth fleet, the hulls of their ships glow as they build a charge ready to fire their weapons. The Jumpers and Tel'tak advance on the Verdain and release drones and cannon fire as they push forward, the Verdain fire their weapons to counter the approaching weapons fire.

A lot of weapons fire from both sides collide in to colourful explosions, some weapons fire makes it through and although many dodge out of the way many ships on both sides are hit, ships on both sides show damage but all still remain.

The weapons fire intensifies as they continue to advance, two Jumpers lose their drone pods in the strike and appear dead in space, another Jumper was lost, 4 Tel'tak vessels show damage with scorch lines all over their hulls from the enemy weapons fire, two Verdain ships were thrown off course and as they collided they explode setting off a chain reaction which takes several other ships with them.

Both the advancing Verdain and Earth ships break formation and scatter, soon the space between the fleets turns in to a garbled mess of explosions and weapons fire, the ships are all mixed together making it difficult for either side to tell who's is who's.

The Commander orders more ships to advance, another line of 100 ships manoeuvre out of formation and head in to the battlefield, they speed towards the Earth fleet and fire on the Jumpers and Tel'tak as they go.

As the second wave of Verdain ships reaches the Earth fleet, the Ancients step forward and hold out their hands with looks of intense concentration on their faces, they appear to form an invisible barrier between them and the approaching ships, as the Verdain open fire their weapons get through but their ships do not, they explode as they strike the barrier.

The Ancients successfully take out around 70 Verdain ships, while the rest turn and veer away back towards the battlefield.

Several of the large ships in the Earth fleet were hit by the weapons fire, all survived but their shields have been weakened by the attack. The Odyssey was scraped by a powerful energy blast which weakened it's rear shields, part of the blast struck the hull and life support has been lost on two decks.

Atlantis' shields are down to 82% but holding.

"We could use some help out here." shouts Sheppard over the radio.

O'Neill orders the deployment of more Tel'tak, Jumpers and Al'kesh to the battlefield.

As the Earth fleet deploys more ships, 100 more Verdain ships break formation and head in to battle.

More Jumpers and Tel'tak are lost in the the battlefield but the war wages on, as many of the Jumpers run out of drones they're forced to head back to Atlantis to reload, on their way back they're followed by a large number of Verdain ships.

Once again as the Verdain approach, the Ancients create a barrier between them, loads more ships are destroyed against the barrier but then the barrier drops and the Verdain make it through.

Ancients on board the all the ships hunch down from exhaustion as the Verdain open fire on the fleet.

On Atlantis, the crew see the Ancients hunching over and Raina spots Chaya fall against a console using her arms to hold herself up, "Chaya, are you ok?" asks Raina as she goes over to see what's wrong.

"We're running out of energy, the Verdain ships are too powerful, we can't hold them back for much longer." says Chaya as she gets her balance.

The Verdain ships that made it through the barrier are attacking the fleet and the ones following the Jumpers are able to pass directly through Atlantis' shield.

Military personnel stationed at the railguns take aim and open fire, Carson Beckett is in the drone chair of Atlantis and he starts firing drones at the enemy ships as they zigzag around the buildings of the city.

The Al'kesh spread out from the fleet, some head for the battlefield to help the smaller ships while others remain and fend off the ones that made it through the barrier. 8 Verdain ships descend on a single Al'kesh and unleash punishing weapons fire, the Al'kesh fires back but it's too late, within seconds their shields are down and the ship explodes.

Atlantis manages to destroy the Verdain attacking the city and the Jumpers have been reloaded and sent back in to battle, the Alliance, Daedalus and Odyssey advance forward.

O'Neill orders all X-302s and Death gliders be deployed, a few moments later they burst out of the ships bays one after the other.

The battle wages on and more ships are lost on both sides, the battlefield looks like a junk yard full of debris from broken ships, all that remains of the Earth fleet is Atlantis, Daedalus, Odyssey and 7 Al'kesh, luckily they've managed to take out a few hundred Verdain ships, but this war is far from over and their numbers are dropping quickly.

"General, we're out of this fight, we've taken too much damage, we're dead in the water." says the captain of the Odyssey over the radio.

"Ok captain we're coming to get you." says O'Neill and he gives McKay the order the head over to them.

"Sir, this is the Alliance, we're closer..we'll get them." says Swanson over the radio.

"Alright." replies O'Neill.

"There's more ships coming." shouts McKay.

As hundreds more Verdain ships are sent in to battle, the Nox on the surface of the planet join hands in a circle, look up the skies and start gathering the planets energy. The energy collects in to a sphere at the center of the circle and then in snaking streams of light they shoot out in to space attacking the Verdain ships.

The energy from the Nox is causing damage and slowly destroying Verdain ships, but it's taking a while to penetrate their armour, and with hundreds heading towards the main Earth fleet it's starting to look grim.


	28. Chapter 28

**WAR – PART 2**

Suddenly Verdain start appearing on board the ships, they grab anyone nearby and start throwing them through the walls like they were ghosts, straight out in to space. Even the Ancients don't seem immune to the attack as many are grabbed by the Verdain and drained of their energy, causing them to disappear.

On Atlantis, all personnel carrying a weapon open fire on the Verdain, the control room descends into absolutely chaos as many people are thrown through the walls and others shot by Verdain energy guns and injured.

O'Neill and Mitchell duck behind a console for cover, constantly leaning out from the sides to shoot at the approaching Verdain, Ronon and Teal'c are down by the Stargate fighting the Verdain any way they can as others frantically run around trying to get away.

Raina, Teyla and Alisana are attending to the wounded, dragging the unconscious across the floor and away from danger.

Teal'c opens fire on Verdain with his staff weapon, it slows them down but doesn't do much damage, he grabs his staff with both hands and uses it as a hand combat weapon, after a while he takes down a Verdain sending it falling to the floor, but another approaches quickly and knocks the staff from his hands.

While this is happening, Ronon is also in hand to hand combat with Verdain, he launches punch after punch and jumping in the air using the full force of his body to pound on them, he manages to knock one down on it's knees, he pulls out his gun but it's knocked out of his hand and lands near the Stargate next to Teal'cs staff.

Both Teal'c and Ronon continue fighting the Verdain with their bare hands but they're slowly being overpowered as more come towards them, soon they're surrounded and with their backs to each other they slowly circle.

"They are proving most difficult to take down." says Teal'c.

"Yeah." replies Ronon.

O'Neill and Mitchell continue shooting the Verdain up in the control room and by concentrating their fire on single Verdain, they begin beaten them one at a time.

Teal'c and Ronon push apart and engage the Verdain in hand to hand combat once again, they team up and attack the them together, using clothes-line tactics and double tackles which although it doesn't kill the Verdain it proves successful in knocking them down.

They continue to attack the Verdain and after knocking down a few more they turn around, as they turn around, two Verdain punch them both and send them flying through the air towards the Stargate.

Teal'c and Ronon land very hard on the floor, after a few moments spent getting their bearings back they see their weapons on the floor, they look at each other and then pick up their weapons, jumping to their feet they stand shoulder to shoulder and open fire, their combined and concentrated fire power successfully shatters the Verdains armour and one by one they fall to pieces.

As more and more Verdain fall, the ones remaining give up and disappear.

"Have they gone?" asks Woolsey.

"Yes, they've gone." replies O'Neill as he stands from behind the console and looks around the room.

As they look around they see wounded all over the place, Keller comes in with medical teams to treat the wounded and it takes a while to take in what just happened and everyone that was lost.

* * *

"There's still hundreds of ships heading right for us." says McKay while holding his laptop and cowering underneath a console.

"Swanson, what's the status of the fleet?" asks O'Neill over the radio.

"The Odyssey is gone Sir, we managed to get most of her crew on to the Alliance but our transporters cut out before we could get them all." replies Swanson, "We lost 2 Al'kesh and most of our crew when the Verdain boarded us." she adds.

O'Neill goes silent for a moment, "Hang in there, Swanson." he replies.

"Yes Sir." says Swanson.

"Look." shouts Raina while pointing at the display showing the battle outside.

They see all the Verdain ships heading towards the battlefield, hundreds of them.

Then the great battle ship moves forward to join the battle

O'Neill quickly gets back on the radio, "This is O'Neill, deploy every ship we've got." he shouts.

The remaining Ancients on board the ships get to their feet, as they see the ships approaching they take a few steps back, then they run forward and as they run they turn in to spinning balls of energy and fly out towards the battlefield.

The entire Earth fleet move forward and attack with everything they've got, soon every ship in the fleet is engaged in the battle, the glow from trails of railgun fire, drones, energy weapons, Ancients, Nox energy and constant explosions light up the surrounding space.

* * *

Ships are destroyed on both sides as the epic battle wages on, but the sheer number of Verdain ships greatly out number the Earth fleet and the great battle ships weapons are really powerful, they're losing ships at an alarming rate.

"We're not causing enough damage." says Woolsey.

"I know. Why didn't we bring nukes." says O'Neill.

McKay stands up, he clicks his fingers a few times and points at O'Neill, "I've got an idea." he says, then he runs off.

As the great battle ship opens fire on the Earth fleet it causes massive damage, shields are failing and their hulls bombarded with weapons fire blowing holes in the sides of their ships, the towers around Atlantis are struck and one is completely destroyed, crew on all ships being knocked off their feet as panels and consoles explode from power surges.

The Ancients in the form of balls of energy strike the hulls of the Verdain ships but are still unable to penetrate their armour, they manage to weaken many ships but it drains the Ancients energy and soon one by one they start vanishing from the battlefield.

A Verdain ship is struck with the force of many of the Earth fleets weapons and it spins out of control, crashing in to several other Verdain ships, Jumpers and Tel'tak ships completely destroying them, another Verdain ship is struck by the blast wave of the sudden explosion and goes hurtling towards the planet.

The battle ship fires on the Daedalus as it enters the battlefield, unleashing a prolonged wave of weapons fire, Daedalus' shield strength rapidly drops and soon the weapons fire is ripping straight through its hull, the X-302 bays are blown clean off and a massive explosions erupts from the back of the Daedalus.

On the surface of the planet, the Nox are continuing to channel it's energy out in to space, but the Verdain ship sent hurtling towards the planet plummets through the atmosphere and impacts the surface near the Nox, as it crashes on the surface it breaks the circle of Nox and sends them flying through the air in a massive cloud of dust and debris.

With the Ancients nearly all but gone, the Nox knocked unconscious on the planets surface unable to use their powers, and the Earth fleet numbers dwindling at each passing second, this war is nearly over...and everyone feels it.

"General...it was a pleasure serving with you." says Swanson over the radio through a lot of static.

"The pleasure was mine, Colonel." replies O'Neill.

"We did our best Sir." says Carter as she stands with Swanson on the broken bridge of the Alliance.

Everyone stands with a deep feeling of hopelessness, but they have no regrets and remain proud knowing they did their best and fought with honour side by side.

A few moments of silence pass and Teal'c walks up to O'Neill next to the communication console, "We die with honour." he says.


	29. Chapter 29

**WAR – PART 3**

The Verdain mercilessly continue to devastate the Earth fleet and soon only two Al'kesh, Atlantis and the Alliance are the only ships that remain operational and no matter how hopeless is may seem, they're determined to fight back until the very end.

Sheppard comes down the stairs from the Jumper bay heading in to the control room, "Sir's" he says.

"John. I am glad to see you're alright." says Teyla with a smile.

"I thought you were still out there?" asks O'Neill.

"Yes I was Sir, I came back for drones but I couldn't take off again, the Jumpers fried." says Sheppard.

"Isn't doing us much good anyway, Colonel." says Woolsey, "It's good to see you're OK." he adds.

McKay comes running back in to the control room, he slows down to a walk as he reaches the others, "Let's not give up just yet." he says with a confident smile.

"What are you doing with that?" asks Woolsey.

McKay holds out his arms, he's carrying a ZPM, "We're going to use it as a bomb." he says.

"A bomb?" asks Ronon.

"Yes." replies McKay, "We rig it to overload, then we beam it out in to the battlefield." he adds.

"Will it work?" asks O'Neill.

"Well, the resulting explosion from an overloaded ZPM is massive. If this doesn't destroy them then honestly...I don't know what will." says McKay.

"I take it you took that from the power room, don't we need all three to power the hyperdrive?" asks Woolsey.

"..Yes.." replies McKay.

"And how are we going to get home if you blow it up?" asks Woolsey, pointing out a flaw in McKay's plan.

"I don't know." replies McKay, "Look we won't be going home anyway if we're dead, what do we have to lose?" he adds.

"What do you need?" asks O'Neill.

"I could use Sam's help." replies McKay.

O'Neill gets on the radio, "Swanson can you hear me?" he says.

"Yes Sir." replies Swanson.

"We need Carter, can you beam her over?." asks O'Neill.

"Yes Sir, beaming now." replies Swanson.

Carter is transported to Atlantis, "Sir?." she says.

"Need you to help McKay." says O'Neill.

McKay leans towards the radio, "Colonel Swanson, this is McKay. When I give the word I need to lock on to the ZPM in the control room and beam it out to the battlefield. Give us 2 minutes." he says, then he takes Carter over to a console at the far end of the room to work on the ZPM.

"What's going on Sir?" asks Swanson.

"We have a plan to stop the Verdain, we're going to use a ZPM as a bomb which will hopefully take them out. To anyone who can hear this transmission, I'm ordering you to fall back, we need to get clear of the blast...you have 2 minutes to get out of there." says O'Neill.

* * *

As the Earth fleet falls back, McKay and Carter finish their modifications to the ZPM and set it to overload, they run back over and approach O'Neill, "Alright, that's it we're set to go." says Carter.

"Swanson, beam it now." shouts McKay over the radio and he looks back toward the ZPM.

A few seconds later and it's still there, "Swanson, now." shouts McKay, "Swanson?" he adds.

Over on the Alliance, Swanson tried to beam it out but the Alliance's system have shorted out and panels are bursting in to flames all around the bridge and filling it with smoke.

"Transporters are offline." shouts Swanson down the radio, "We're dead in the water." she adds.

"Oh no." says McKay in a worried tone of voice.

"Shut it off." says O'Neill.

"We can't Sir." replies Carter.

"Once the overload has started we can't stop it." shouts McKay

"Take it on a Jumper." says Mitchell.

"There aren't any more Jumpers." says Sheppard.

"Look we have to get it off the ship now." says McKay as he points over to the ZPM.

As they look over to the ZPM they see that it's gone, it's no longer on the console.

"Where'd it go?" asks Carter.

McKay runs over to the console and looks at the now empty spot where it was, he looks back at everyone in confusion.

"Swanson did you beam it out?" asks O'Neill over the radio.

"No Sir, I told you transporters are offline." replies Swanson.

Everyone stands confused as to what has happened, then Zelenka picks up a ship on the monitors.

"There's a ship leaving the lower Jumper bay." says Zelenka.

Sheppard looks around and then at O'Neill, "Where's Alisana?" he says.

"Damn it." says O'Neill as he quickly opens communications, "Alisana what are you doing?" he says.

"Taking the ZPM to the battlefield, don't worry I know what I'm doing." replies Alisana.

O'Neill hunches down a tiny bit frustrated, "I hope so." he says in a worried tone.

* * *

Zelenka brings up a digital display of all the ships outside, they follow Alisana's ship indicated on the screen.

Alisana, flying her stolen Verdain ship enters the battlefield and weaves in and out between the fighting ships and dodging weapons fire as she pushes toward the center, she spots an enemy ship heading towards her so she opens fire successfully destroying it, but she's hit from behind and it knocks out her weapons.

"Alisana watch out, three ships behind you heading your way." shouts O'Neill over the radio.

The Commander on board the battle ship noticed her destroy one of his ships.

"Why is that ship firing on one of our own?" shouts the Commander.

"I don't know, Commander." replies a Verdain sat at the controls.

"Who's flying it?" asks the Commander.

The Verdain at the controls brings up video of the ships bridge, it shows Alisana at the controls.

The Commander groans and then spots the glowing ZPM in the back of the ship as Alisana closes the doors behind her.

"Destroy that ship." screams the Commander.

The battle ship slowly turns and opens fire, Alisana manages to dodge most of the weapons fire but the explosions around her are very close to her hull and sends her ship shaking and making it difficult to control.

"Alisana you have to drop the ZPM now, you have about 15 seconds before it blows." shouts McKay over the radio.

Alisana turns her ship really hard as fast as she can away from the battle ship, as she slowly gains distance away from it but still under weapons fire, she blows the rear hatch of her ship and dumps the ZPM.

"It's done." says Alisana over the radio, and she heads away from it back towards Atlantis with the battle ship following behind.

The ZPM starts to glow brighter and brighter, moments later it collapses in on itself then in a blinding flash it explodes.

The blast is massive and it destroys everything in its radius, within seconds every Verdain ship is vaporised.

The blast wave from the explosion spreads quickly and although the Earth fleet pulled back, it wasn't quite far enough. Their ships are clipped by the blast wave, violently shaking them and everyone on board is thrown off their feet and sent crashing in to the walls and equipment around them.

Alisana's ship is also caught in the wave which completely disables her ship and sends it violently shaking and spinning around, Alisana is thrown around the bridge like a rag doll.

As the force of the blast subsides, everything goes quiet, everyone on board the fleet has been knocked unconscious and their ships are badly damaged.


	30. Chapter 30

**DEFEAT**

Chaya reappears in Atlantis with Lya, they see everyone scattered around unconscious.

"Wake up." says Chaya, "Wake up." she says.

Lya spots Raina laying on the floor, she goes over to her and gently lifts her up, "Raina." she says.

The crew start to come around and pick themselves up off the floor, many holding their arms, legs and heads that are bruised or broken, power fluctuates throughout Atlantis, lights consoles and screens blinking on and off, the eerie sound of Atlantis' alarms fill the city.

"What happened?" utters Woolsey, "General." he says.

"We must have caught the tail end of the blast wave." says Carter.

They hear a loud noise and Atlantis is slightly shaken, Ronon steadies Lya and Raina, and Sheppard steadies Chaya as they momentarily lose balance.

"What was that?" asks O'Neill grabbing on to a console to pull himself up off the floor.

"No idea." says McKay, "Help me up." he says holding out his hand.

Carter helps McKay to his feet and he makes his way over to a console, he manages to reboot Atlantis' systems and steady the power.

"Shields are down to 12%...looks like we've sustained a lot of structural damage." says McKay.

"What about the radio, can you make contact with the other ships?" asks O'Neill.

"Yes, channels open." replies McKay as he rubs his bruised neck.

O'Neill goes over to the console, "Swanson, come in." he says, "Anyone...can anyone hear me?" he adds.

* * *

Over on the Alliance, O'Neill's voice echoes in the bridge, Swanson slowly awakes and is laying on the floor, she looks around and sees others waking up but most are still unconscious or trapped laying lifeless stuck under large slabs of metal fallen from the ceiling.

Swanson reaches up and grabs the arm of her chair, using it lift herself up she manages to pull herself on to it, she hears O'Neill's voice and activates the radio, "Sir." she says.

"Swanson, you alright?" asks O'Neill.

"Not really Sir...*cough*..*cough*...most of my crew is dead...the Alliance is a mess." replies Swanson, "You sir?" she adds.

"We have a lot of injured people..Atlantis is a mess too." says O'Neill.

"What about the rest of the fleet?" asks Swanson.

"Unknown, no one else is responding." says O'Neill, "Hang in there, we'll try come and get you." he adds.

Raina has an injured leg and hops over to O'Neill, "Alisana." she says in a concerned voice.

"McKay can you get anything on the sensors?" asks Carter.

McKay activates the sensors and brings up a display, "Yes, yes." he says.

"Anything?" asks O'Neill.

"Detecting an Al'kesh, the Alliance...the Daedalus, badly damaged but they're still there." says McKay, "There she is, right there." he says while pointing at the screen, "That's Alisana's ship" he adds.

O'Neill gets back on the radio, "Alisana can you hear me?" he says.

"Alisana." says Raina, "Alisana." she says.

"Come on say something." says O'Neill.

They wait but don't hear anything, O'Neill lowers and shakes his head, then they hear a faint voice over the radio.

"Jack." says Alisana.

Raina and O'Neill look at each other with a smile of relief.

"Yes it's me Jack, good to hear your voice." says O'Neill.

"Alisana." says Raina.

Alisana gets to her feet and using the wall to steady herself she gets back in to her pilot chair.

"Hi Raina, I'm still here." says Alisana.

"May not be for long..GENERAL" shouts McKay, "The battle ship, it's still there" he says worryingly.

"What?" says O'Neill as he looks at the display.

* * *

Over on the battle ship, the power is out and the ship is in complete darkness, the floors are littered with fallen Verdain armour, the blast wave had taken them all out.

A hand appears from behind the Commanders chair, it grabs the top of the chair and a silhouette slowly stands from behind the chair, it's the Commander, he was the only one to survive the blast wave.

He looks out of the front of the ship and sees the fleet in the distance, angry he goes over to a console and opens communications.

"You." groans the Commander, "You did this." he says.

"Yeah, you deserved it." replies O'Neill.

"You'll be sorry you did." says the Commander.

"The only thing I'm sorry about is that the blast didn't take you with it." replies O'Neill.

The Commander moans in anger and pushes a button in front of him, power is restored to the battle ship.

"He's powering weapons." shouts McKay.

The battle ship opens fire on Atlantis, "With our shields at 12% we're dead." shouts McKay.

"Chaya?" says Sheppard, "Can you stop it?" he asks.

Chaya looks around, "I don't have enough energy, I can't do anything." she says regrettably.

Lya steps over to a broken window and stares through it towards the planet, she concentrates and manages to gather the small amount of natural energy that remains. She focuses the energy stream to intercept the weapons fire as it approaches Atlantis, it stops them so she sends the beam of energy at the battle ship, after a prolonged strike she manages to take out the ships weapons.

This makes the Commander angry and he bashes the console in front of him, as he does he inadvertently activates the viewer and Alisana appears on his screen, he knows she was the one that dropped the ZPM and now he knows she survived the blast.

He has no weapons to destroy her with so he plots a collision course and starts the battle ship flying towards her.

"Is it...moving." asks Carter.

"Yes it is." yells McKay, "It's heading straight for Alisana's ship." he says.

The communication with the Commander is still on screen, O'Neill steps closer to it.

"Hey. What are you doing." shouts O'Neill at the Commander.

"SHE...will pay the price for what you've done." replies the Commander in a menacing tone.

"Leave her alone." shouts Ronon.

The communication cuts out.

"Alisana, get out of there." shouts O'Neill over the radio.

Alisana looks out of the window and sees the battle ship in the distance heading towards her, she gasps and starts frantically touching the controls.

"I can't, the controls are.." replies Alisana, then her ship completely loses power and goes dark and communication cuts out.

Lya heard her distress and concentrates at the window once again, the planet has little energy left making it difficult to gather, she pauses and takes a deep breath and concentrates incredibly hard, energy begins to gather but as it does the plant life disappears and the surface turns to a desert as Lya quite literally sucks what little life is left right out of it.

Lya manages to gather enough energy and shoots it directly at the battle ship, it doesn't destroy it but the focus of the energy stops it from moving.

McKay hears a beep on the console and goes to check it out, Atlantis' deep space sensors have come online.

"Oh no...I'm picking up another ship coming fast." shouts McKay.

"What, where." asks Carter.

"More Verdain?" asks O'Neill.

"I don't know, but when I say it's coming fast..I mean fast." shouts McKay.

The battle ship has been stalled by Lya's energy and it starts interfering with the battle ships power and it starts to fluctuate.

"Arrrrrgggggh!" screams the Commander as he disappears from the bridge.

Moments later he appears on Atlantis behind Lya, he steps forward and whacks Lya really hard with his arm sending her flying in to a wall at great force, Lya lays on the floor unconscious and her energy dissipates.

Sheppard and Mitchell open fire on the Commander but he disappears again, he reappears moments later back on the bridge of his battle ship and it starts moving again, he turns up the speed as he heads toward Alisana's ship.

"Chaya can you get her out?" asks O'Neill.

"She's on a Verdain ship, I can not get through it's armour." replies Chaya.

O'Neill searches for more options and gets on the radio, "Swanson, do you have teleporters?" he asks.

"I have nothing Sir." replies Swanson.

"Daedalus." says O'Neill, "Daedalus, come in." he says.

"Sir we can't get through, the Daedalus is so badly damaged I doubt their teleporters are working anyway." says Carter.

O'Neill paces a few steps back and forth trying to think of what to do, but he knows there's nothing left, he get's frustrated and kicks the base of one of the consoles, "God...damn it!" he shouts, "You son of a *****" he shouts while looking at the blank screen that earlier displayed the Commanders face.

O'Neill hunches down with his hands on the console, everyone in the room shares his frustration and realise there's nothing they can do for her.

Carter walks over with a tear in her eye, she touches O'Neill's shoulder, "Sir." she says.

O'Neill turns to Carter, he's not crying but he's clearly upset, "She's just a kid, Carter." he says.

Alisana knows there's nothing that can be done, and with the ship disabled she can't get away, she slides herself off her chair and sits holding her knees in the darkness with her back against the console.

The battle ship gets closer, at the speed it's moving it will completely obliterate Alisana's ship when it hits, the Commander stands on his bridge looking out the front of his ship with joy.

"Uh...Ha...ha." laughs the Commander, "Inferior" he screams as merciless and menacing as ever.


	31. Chapter 31

As the battle ship gains on Alisana, the crew of Atlantis look away from the monitors and lower their heads with sadness, none of them can bare to watch.

Alisana sits squeezed in a tight ball behind the console of her ship, she's crying and has her hands over her ears gently rocking back and forth as the battle ship approaches.

Suddenly Atlantis' alarms go off again.

"Now what?" shouts Sheppard.

"I don't know." shouts McKay tapping buttons on the console.

Then a bright blue flash is seen beaming through the windows of Atlantis, they move to the windows and as they look out in to space they see a hyperspace window off in the distance.

Seconds later a ship emerges from hyperspace at great speed and immediately opens fire on the battle ship as it flies around it, it comes to a stop positioning itself between the battle ship and Alisana's ship.

The rate of fire is like nothing they've ever seen, hundreds of energy blasts a second pummelling the battle ship.

Alisana sees the flash of the weapons fire reflecting on the wall in front of her, she turns and grabs the top of the console and slowly lifts herself up to peek out of the window to see what's happening.

The battle ship shakes with each blast and the Commander loses balance swinging from side to side, panels and consoles explode around him.

"Waaarrrrrrrrrrrgghhhh!" screams the Commander looking at the ship outside.

As the glass of the main bridge window begins to break, the Commander gets to his feet and turns around, he runs heading out of the bridge as the weapons fire breaches the ships armour and the battle ship starts exploding from the front.

The Commander runs through the corridors of his ship, chased from behind by explosions as his great battle ship is quickly being blown to pieces, he reaches the room that is filled with blinding white light and he runs inside seconds before the entire ship explodes.

As explosions fill the battle ship from front to end, the mysterious ship outside stops firing, soon the battle ship explodes in to a massive ball of fire and vaporises.

* * *

Everyone on Atlantis is in awe at what just took place.

O'Neill leans over to Carter, "You saw that right?" he asks.

"Yep." replies a stunned Carter.

"Just checking." says O'Neill.

Alisana slowly stands up, her mouth is open a little in disbelief, then a light circles around her and she's transported to Atlantis.

Chaya and Lya are transported away.

As Alisana appears on Atlantis, she let's out a deep breath, and everyone hears it and turns around.

"Alisana." shouts Raina as she runs over and hugs her tightly.

Everyone smiles with happiness and relief, "You're ok." says O'Neill, "She's ok" he says.

"Yes Sir." says Carter.

Alisana and Raina stop hugging and walk over to the others, Alisana stops and with a smile she looks at O'Neill.

O'Neill shakes his head, "Come here." he says and he pulls her in for a hug, "Both of you, come on." he says as he pulls Raina in too.

"What happened?" asks Alisana.

"We're not sure." says O'Neill.

* * *

Just then, Chaya and Lya reappear on the lower gate level, they all walk over to the balcony railings and look down.

Chaya and Lya look up at them, then they look back and step aside.

A woman appears, dressed in what looks like a long silver gown with gold circular patterns on it, she looks up at everyone and then looks directly at Alisana.

O'Neill and Alisana glance at one another, O'Neill lowers his eyebrows as if thinking, then he turns and walks down the stairs with Alisana while everyone watches in wonder.

They reach the bottom of the stairs and approach the woman, the woman smiles at Alisana and she smiles back.

"Did you save me?" asks Alisana in a soft voice.

"We did." replies the woman.

"Thank you." says Alisana.

The woman gives her a gentle nod, Lya looks up at Raina standing at the balcony, she holds out her hand and indicates to Raina to come down and join them, Raina looks at Teyla, "It is ok." says Teyla.

Raina slowly makes her way down the stairs, O'Neill turns and sees her approaching so he steps back, Raina then stands next to Alisana and holds her hand.

Chaya steps forward, "Alisana" she says, "Do you know who she is?" she asks.

Alisana shakes her head, "No." she says.

"She's Furling." says Lya as she also steps forward.

Alisana stands shocked at what she was just told, she believed they were all dead and battles with her emotions for a second, then overcome with joy she runs forward and embraces the woman.

"I thought the Furling's were extinct?" asks Mitchell.

"Obviously not." replies Daniel.

After a long embrace with the woman, Alisana looks back and lets go of the woman, wiping the tears from her face she holds out her hand, "This is Raina." she says, Raina approaches.

"Hello, Raina." says the woman, "My name is Venori.".

Alisana holds Raina's hand, "There were others, but we could not save them." says Alisana.

Venori steps back and reaches out to Chaya and Lya, "We can." she says.

Chaya, Lya and Venori hold hands in a triangular shape, they close their eyes, take a deep breath and look to the skies.

A white light flows around Chaya, a green light around Lya and a Blue light around Venori.

Carter notices a glow through one of Atlantis' broken windows, she walks over to it and looks out, the others see her walking over and follow her.

Looking out of the window they see streams of orange light flowing out from the battlefield towards the planet, as the streams of light reach the planet, the light surrounding Venori, Lya and Chaya goes dim and they break the triangle.

A beep is heard from an Atlantis console and again McKay goes over to check it out, Carter follows and they both look at the screen, they see a digital image of the planet and at the side a counter is shown and the numbers are going up.

"Life signs." says McKay.

Carter smiles at McKay then runs over to the balcony railing, "Sir." she shouts, "We're picking up life signs on the planet." she adds.

"Come with us." says Venori.

O'Neill thinks they're leaving and steps forward, "Err..wait..just a..." he says.

As O'Neill is talking, Venori, Chaya, Lya, Raina, Alisana and O'Neill are transported down to the planets surface.

"..second." says O'Neill as he looks around in confusion, as he turns he sees hundreds of people around Alisana's age standing on the planets surface looking a little lost.

"They're Novum." says Raina in a happy tone.

Alisana and Raina hug in excitement.

O'Neill walks over to them, "Excuse me...hello...hi." he says, "What's going on?" he asks.

"They brought the Novum back." says Alisana.

"That's good." says O'Neill as he looks to the Novum and then lowers his head and let's out a breath.

Alisana notices O'Neill's strange expression, "Aren't you happy?" she asks.

"What, no. I mean yes..of course I am. I'm a little confused, how did you do this?" asks O'Neill.

"O'Neill, the Novum were not dead, their physical forms were converted to energy so they could be controlled, using our combined abilities we were able to reverse that." says Lya.

"Ah." says O'Neill, "Well why didn't you do that in the first place?" he asks.

"It required all of our abilities." replies Lya.

"So what...you were just waiting for the Furlings to show up?. You could have told us they were coming." says O'Neill, "If we'd known, we could have held off the Verdain a little longer, we lost a lot of good people out there" he adds sounding a little frustrated.

"We didn't know they were coming." says Chaya.

"It was Alisana who brought us here." says Venori.

"Me?" asks Alisana who thinks for a moment, "The crystal?" she says.

Venori steps over to Alisana, "Yes. It was activated when you touched it, the moment our people were alerted to your presence we came as quickly as we could." says Venori.

"You came back for me?" says Alisana.

"And the others. Your loss was devastating to our people, to all our people's, but we never gave up hope that one day you would be returned to us, we have been searching and waiting for millions of years." says Venori, "Our people can't wait to meet you all." she adds.

"So what happens now?" asks O'Neill.

Venori looks at O'Neill and then transports everyone back to Atlantis, this time in to the control room.

"They're back." says Woolsey, "General, is everything ok?" he asks.

"It's fine Woolsey, don't worry." says O'Neill.

Venori steps forward, "On behalf of all our people I want to thank you for all you have done to protect our children." she says, "It will not be forgotten and we are forever in your debt." she adds.

Everyone smiles and nods at Venori, "You're welcome." says Woolsey.

"Many of all our people's have been lost, we can not bring them back, nothing can make up for their loss but I would like to do something to help you." says Venori.

Venori uses her abilities to repair Atlantis and all remaining ships in the fleet, making them as good as new and healing all the wounded crews.

Communications start coming in over the radio.

"General, what just happened?" says Swanson.

"Atlantis, this is the Daedalus. Care to explain what's going on?" says Caldwell.

O'Neill is happy to hear their voices "Err Yes, stand by." he says, "Thank you" he says to Venori.

McKay steps forward, "Erm, we had to blow up a ZPM out there, you wouldn't happen to have any of those would you?" he asks.

"Rodney." says Sheppard.

"What." says McKay.

Venori grins at McKay and then makes a ZPM appear on the console next to her.

McKay picks up the ZPM and smiles, "Thanks." he says, "Got any more, because we could use some spares" he says.

"McKay." says Carter, in disbelief that McKay could even ask.

Sheppard shakes his head, "Unbelievable" he mutters under his breath.

Raina and Alisana laugh at McKay.

"So what's going to happen to the Novum now?" asks O'Neill.

"They will join their people." says Lya, "Although their families are long gone, they're still our children and we will take care of them." she adds.

"Where will I go?" asks Raina.

Raina is part Nox and Alteran.

"That will be your choice." says Lya.

"This is great, now that you're back we can catch up on everything that we missed." says Alisana.

"I can't wait to explore the galaxy, I have so much to see." says an excited Alisana as she turns to O'Neill.

Venori's facial expression changes slightly.

"Is something wrong?" asks Alisana.

"Alisana, we can not stay." says Venori.

Alisana is confused, "What, why?" she asks.

O'Neill senses that they need to be alone, so he silently ushers everyone to move away and leave them to it, Lya and Chaya take Raina and stand over by the railings.

"Our people have a new home now, a great distance from here. We must return to them." explains Venori.

"That's ok, I can use the Stargate to explore and visit Raina and the others." says Alisana.

"There are no Stargates in our region of space. We chose our new home because it is isolated, away from danger and it allows us to live in peace." says Venori.

"So if I go I won't be able to come back, I won't be able to see Raina?" asks Alisana.

Venori gently shakes her head, "No." she says regrettably.

Alisana looks over at Raina for a few seconds, then back to Venori, "What about the ship?" she asks.

"It took an enormous amount of power to get us here, and we only did so because we knew we had to get here urgently. We have enough power to return home, but it will be difficult to do it again." explains Venori.

Alisana is upset she won't be able to return but she accepts it, "I want to say goodbye." she says as she turns and walks towards O'Neill and the others.

"Alisana." shouts Venori.

Alisana stops and turns, the others heard the shout and look over as Venori walks over to Alisana.

Venori rubs Alisana's head and shoulder, "I said WE must return." she says, "I mean our people out there on our ship. If you come with us it will be your choice, we will not force you." she adds.

Alisana is in a bit of a thought conflict, "I'm not ready." she says, "We all had our lives taken away from us, I still have so much I want to see and do." she adds with tears rolling down her cheeks.

Venori wipes away Alisana's tears and gives her an understanding smile then stands up straight, "Then you must stay." she says.

"What about our people, I don't want to abandon them." says Alisana.

"Our people will understand. You're right, you were robbed of the experiences you should have had, and now that you have a chance to follow your passion and experience everything you've dreamed of, you must take it." says Venori.

Lya, Chaya and Raina come over and join them.

"We will care for her." says Chaya.

"You can stay with us on Gaia." says Lya.

Alisana smiles a little then turns and waves to O'Neill to come over, O'Neill points at himself, "Me?" he says and then he makes his way over.

"This is Jack...I mean General O'Neill." says Alisana, "His people are explorers, if it's ok with you, I would like to stay with them." she says.

O'Neill gives Alisana a puzzled look, "Stay...W..what?" he says.

"Alisana has expressed a wish to remain here. With you." says Venori.

"She has?" replies O'Neill, "When you say...with you...you mean?" he says.

"Your people." says Alisana.

"Ah." replies O'Neill, "I see." he says.

"The Nox and Alterans will watch over her, but she will be in your care." says Venori.

"Can I?" asks Alisana.

"Err...I errr..." says O'Neill, "Carter?" he says, and Carter comes over.

"Sir?" says Carter.

"Alisana wants to stay with us...and explore the galaxy." says O'Neill.

"Really." says Carter.

"What do you think about that?" asks O'Neill.

"Well..." says Carter, then she looks at Alisana who's silently saying please with her mouth, "Well she has shown a great interest in technology, I would be happy to work with her. Sure why not." says Carter.

Raina steps to Alisana and fights her corner, "And she is very smart." she says.

"Oooo...err...fine..ok..yes, you can stay." says O'Neill.

Alisana is happy and gives O'Neill a really quick hug, "Yes, thank you." she says.

Everyone is watching from the other end of the room.

"What is going on?" asks Teyla.

"I think she's staying." says Ronon.

"Really, she's not staying here is she?. That's all we need is immature teenagers running around wrecking the place, have enough of that with Zelenka." moans McKay.

Zelenka's ears are burning, "What did he say?" he says.

"Nothing, get back to work." says McKay.

With Venori's blessing and O'Neill's permission, Alisana has decided to stay with them in the Milky Way so she can live her dream of exploring the galaxy and play catch up on everything she's missed.

Raina has decided to return to Gaia with Lya, she will also remain in close contact with the Ancients and perhaps one day ascend, but like Alisana, she wants to experience life first.

Some of the Novum on the planet who are part Furling have decided to return home with Venori and were transported to the Furling ship, the other Novum have decided to remain under the care of the Nox and Alterans.

Venori, Lya, Chaya, Raina and Alisana are gathered near the Stargate.

Alisana and Raina give each other a big hug, "I'll see you soon." says Alisana.

"When you come and visit, I want to hear about everything you've seen." replies Raina, "Stay out of trouble." she adds.

Alisana giggles, "I will." she says.

As McKay dials Gaia on the gate console, Alisana gives Lya and Chaya a hug and they then leave through the Stargate with Raina.

"Are you sure about this?" says Venori.

"Yes." replies Alisana.

Venori smiles and then holds out her palm, a crystal appears in her hand and she passes it to Alisana.

Alisana looks at it curiously, "What is it?" she asks.

"It is a beacon, if you ever need us, or you wish to come home, activate it and we will come." says Venori.

"I understand." says Alisana.

"It is time for us to leave." says Venori.

Alisana gives her a smile, but it's an upset smile as she tries to look brave, water glistens in her eyes.

Venori pulls her into a long embrace, Venori then gently holds the sides of Alisana's face and strokes her hair, "You are a very brave girl and your people are so proud of you, so very very proud. Although we will be a great distance away, we will always be with you." says Venori.

They stop hugging and Venori's fingers gently slide off Alisana's chin as she steps back.

"See you soon." says Venori.

Alisana watches as a light beams around Venori and she transports back to the ship, a few moments later the ship slowly moves away, then enters hyperspace.

Alisana lowers her head clutching the crystal Venori gave her, she has tears dropping off her face and feeling both happy and sad.

O'Neill and Carter are standing at the balcony watching, they see Alisana standing there alone so they make their way down the stairs towards her.

"Hey." says O'Neill.

Alisana turns and quickly wipes away the tears, "Hi." she says with a brave smile.

"You alright?" asks O'Neill.

"Yeah." replies Alisana with a nod.

Carter goes over and puts her arm around her, "Don't worry I'm sure you'll see them again." she says comfortingly.

They start walking back towards the stairs, "You know, there's a tradition we have on Earth when some ones feeling a little down." says Carter.

"Tradition?" asks O'Neill.

"Yes, Sir." replies Carter.

"What's that?" asks Alisana.

"You eat a big tub of chocolate ice cream." replies Carter.

"Ice cream?" asks Alisana who doesn't know what it is.

"It's very special food, it makes you feel better. Want to try some?" says Carter.

"Sure" says Alisana with a smile.

"Ok let's go." says Carter, "Coming Sir?" she adds.

"Err no, I'll pass." says O'Neill.

Carter and Alisana head up the stairs, "So err...how old are you anyway?" shouts O'Neill.

"We don't really keep track, but it'll be hundreds of years before we reach your age." replies Alisana.

"Ah." says O'Neill.

Carter laughs and continues heading up the stairs with Alisana.

The Verdain have been defeated, the Novum returned, and peace restored to the galaxy...how long that peace will last is any ones guess.

As for the fate of the Commander, well, that's another story.

**THE END**.


End file.
